Three charged in Brookline arrested-grandson phone-scam scheme

Brookline Police report arresting three Haverhill men on charges they scammed a Brookline woman out of $9,000 by impersonating her grandson on a phone call after he was allegedly in a car accident and arrested by the local police who wouldn't let him go without a bail payment.

Police described the call - similar to one reported by Cambridge Police this week:

On October 2nd 2019 we received a report from a Brookline resident who had been the victim of a scam. The individual informed detectives that she had received a call informing her that her grandson had been in a car accident and 9,000 dollars was required for him to post bail.

The scammers further sold this lie by impersonating her grandson over the phone, and begging that she send the money and not tell anyone. The man on the phone told the victim that she would be contacted by a lawyer who would giver her more details.

After receiving the call from the "lawyer" He told her to write two checks for $4,500 dollars and that he would be sending someone to her apartment to pickup these checks, because the victim was disabled and could not make it to the bank without help. Two men then went to her apartment and collected the checks from the victim and left.

Luckily, the family of the victim noticed something was wrong and quickly reported it to Brookline PD.

Police say that with help from State and Haverhill Police, an investigation led them to Lissandro Penalo, Juan Jose Perez Martinez and Daniel Lopez-Gonzalez, all of Haverhill, and all arrested were all arrested Wednesday on charges of larceny over $250 on a person over 60 and attempted larceny by check.

Innocent, etc.