Person called and spoke to my wife's elderly grandma claiming to be her nephew. He stated that he was on his way to visit us in a few hours and hung up. A few minutes later, he calls back stating that he is being detained at the border because he was caught with $20,000 dollars. My wife's grandma is very gullible so she was falling for the whole thing. Then my wife stepped in and took the phone away and asked who she was speaking to. Someone claiming to be 'el commandante' comes on the phone and keeps asking to speak to my wife's grandma and my wife states that she is an elderly woman and anything that needs to be said to her grandma could be said to her. That's when the person on the other line hung up.

After speaking to her family, it turns out that others in my wife's family have been contacted with similar stories and have even been threatened over the phone with the contacter knowing their home address.

I would urge anyone affected with a similar situation to not offer any of their personal information and to also not allow themselves to be taken advantage of because it's a scam and that's all it is.