I got the call saying my brother was in a car accident. The spanish accent was so bad and my phone was cutting out and I had kids yelling, but I understood that my brother was in a car accident and hurt badly. That he (my brother) handed his cell phone to them. I have only 1 brother who lives in CA, so hearing a strong spanish accent made sense. I unwittingly gave his name when they said my brother. They said he ran into their car. I didn't understand this as a threatening phone call at first, I thought it was just a person at the scene waiting for an ambulance using my brother's cell to contact somebody to let them know. So I was in a little bit of shock and tears were pouring down my face. Then it was made clear that they were mad about their car. Then they said they were going to smash his head in if I didn't do what they said. They wanted me to leave my house to get $2k. That's when I really got freaked because I couldn't tell if they were near by and just threatening me? I had kids with me. I ended up calling 911 on my home phone when my husband came in and said... they just called him on HIS phone (his cell number is the same as mine but the last number is 1 less, so they were just going in order. He doesn't have a brother, then said OH I mean your father! lol My husband just hung up). Anyway, I was literally on the line with 911 saying I felt like an idiot please don't send somebody, but 3 cops were at my door in less then 30 seconds. At least if I ever have a real emergency I know the cops will be there quickly. I guess these numbers can be spoofed with technology so they're hard to track down. I realized when it was all over there was about a million things that didn't make sense (the number was 508, my brother is in CA - duh, I gave his name, my brother would have called his wife, my mom or a local friend... not me, , but once they hook you with this idea that your loved one is in a bad accident... you can't think straight - they keep cutting you off so you can't ask questions etc. And honestly, though I know I fell for the scam, I felt traumatized and upset. When I told my Mom, she said she was glad to hear about this scam because she would fall for it. I have had this number for 7+ years and never got a cold call or marketing call. So this was odd. Hope these guys get what's coming to them.
I got this call recently and just searched the web and found all of these posting. The story started off sounding like my brother was in an accident and the person on the phone was a "helpful" witness. It quickly turned to needing money to pay for damages to their BMW and that they were going to kill him if I didn't get them the money. I asked to speak to my brother repeatedly and they just got angrier and more threatening. Eventually they hung up on me saying they were going to kill my brother and I immediately called my family to make sure everyone was all right, then the police. The story had holes but the part that was most telling of a scam was the insistence that I get into my car and start driving. They are trying to isolate you from other people so you remain in panic and do whatever they say.
I'm sure the person who is doing this is reading our feedback and fine-tuning their tactics. Just remember that karma is a [***] and it will come back to you.