Fake Hostage-Taker Demands Money To Release Granddaughter: Police

STERLING, VA — Scammers are developing scarier stories to convince members of the public to give them money. A woman received a call late Thursday morning from someone claiming he was holding the woman's granddaughther hostage, according to the Loudoun County Sherrif's Office.

The suspect told the woman to withdraw an undisclosed amount of money from her bank to pay for her granddaughter's release. When the woman went to the bank in the 22000 block of Davis Drive in Sterling to withdraw the money and then transfer it to the fake hostage-taker's account, the bank employee told the victim it was probably a scam and contacted the Loudoun County Sheriff's Office.

In these types of scams, the suspects keep the victims on the phone guiding them through the scam and not allowing the victim time to contact their loved one, a sheriff's office spokesman said. "Fortunately in this instance, the teller recognized this was a possible scam and contacted authorities before she transferred any money," the spokesman said.

In recent years, money scams have been growing more sophisticated, with many of them involving gift cards. On Feb. 19, a victim in Ashburn received an email that appeared to be from his supervisor. The email asked the employee to text his supervisor at a phone number provided in the email. During the text conversation the employee was asked to obtain gift cards and then provide the gift card account information and activation codes for each card. The victim later learned this was a scam, the Loudoun sheriff's office said.

In another recent case in Sterling, a victim was contacted on Feb. 10 by a man claiming to work for the U.S. Marshals. The suspect told the victim that there were warrants out for his arrest and to avoid going to prison he needed to provide money in the form of gift cards.

The victim purchased multiple gift cards and gave the caller the activation codes before realizing it was a scam, the sheriff's office said.