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Rochester, MN (KROC-AM News) - An elderly a Rochester woman has lost thousands of dollars through a variant of the "grandchild" scam.

Rochester police say the 82-year-old woman received a call last Thursday from a person claiming to be her granddaughter. The scammer explained that she had been involved in a traffic crash with a vehicle driven by an undercover police officer and was being taken to jail.

Another scammer then spoke to the woman and claimed he was the granddaughter’s attorney and convinced the victim to send him $9000 through a wire transfer. The same man called again and instructed the victim to provide him with $5000 worth if prepaid credit cards, which she did by purchasing the cards at a local "big box" store and reading the credit card numbers to the scammer over the phone.

A police spokesman says the woman later contacted her granddaughter and discovered that she had been scammed.

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