Most scammers have the notion that elderly people are the best group to scam. Most of the time, older people do fall for scams that leave them out of thousands of dollars. These scams typically involve the person’s grandchild calling them up asking for money for a specific reason. The thought is that the grandparent couldn’t’ resist shelling out the cash.

However, there’s one grandmother not to be trifled with. The 73-year-old of Long Island, Jean, is a former 9-1-1 dispatcher, so she’s obviously pretty quick on her toes. She received a call from a scammer claiming it was her grandson who was arrested for drunk driving and needed money to bail him out of jail.

“I don’t have a grandson who drives, so I knew it was a scam,” Jean explains. However, she decided to play along just to see if the scammer would fall for it…and to her surprise, he did!

The ”grandson” eventually had his “lawyer” speak to Jean, who told her that he needed $8,000 in bail money. Jean still didn’t fall for it—in fact, she had a brilliant idea of what to do next.

“I told him I had the money in the house, and thought, he’s not going to fall for that, “ Jean said. “Well, he fell for that.”

Next thing you know, a man pretending to be a bail bondsman showed up at Jean’s doorstep to collect the money. But don’t worry—she really planned for what she was going to do in advance, just in case he did show up.

Jean had the police waiting on standby, and when the man came, she proceeded to hand him an envelope of what he thought was thousands of dollars. But nope—Jean had filled it up with paper towels.

Officers that were hiding then pounced on the man, arresting him and charging him with attempted grand larceny in the third degree.

Police say that elderly scams like this are rampant, and the community needs to be on alert, just like Jean was. If you know a vulnerable person who might not understand this type of scam, it’s important to speak to them and warn them about what to do if something like this happens to them.

Along with the police, Jean also has a wealth of advice if something like this were to happen to you or a loved one. She also hopes her story will serve as a cautionary tale for others and was glad no one was hurt in the process.

To hear from her, as well as tips for warning people who might be easily taken advantage, check out the video below.

Do you know anyone who has been scammed like this before?