What is “It’s me swindle” called in U.S. / U.K. / Canada?

Solution 1:

In the US it is simply called a grandparent scam. Just saw this on the local news a few weeks ago.

• A grandparent receives a phone call or sometimes an e-mail from a grandchild. If it is a phone call, it’s often late at night or early in the morning when most people aren’t thinking that clearly. Usually, the person claims to be traveling in a foreign country and has gotten into a bad situation, like being arrested for drugs, getting in a car accident, or being mugged and needs money wired ASAP. And the caller doesn’t want his or her parents told.

• Sometimes, instead of the “grandchild” making the phone call, the criminal pretends to be an arresting police officer, a lawyer, a doctor at a hospital, or some other person. And we’ve also received complaints about the phony grandchild talking first and then handing the phone over to an accomplice to further spin the fake tale.

• We’ve also seen military families victimized: after perusing a soldier’s social networking site, a con artist will contact the soldier’s grandparents, sometimes claiming that a problem came up during military leave that requires money to address.

• While it’s commonly called the grandparent scam, criminals may also claim to be a family friend, a niece or nephew, or another family member.