Thirteen individuals from the Dominican Republic have been charged in a sophisticated fraud scheme that targeted over 400 grandparents in the United States, primarily in Massachusetts. The scam defrauded victims of a total of $5 million by impersonating their grandchildren in distress , federal prosecutors announced on Tuesday (August 12).

The accused operated organized call centers in the Dominican Republic, where they employed "openers" to call victims, posing as grandchildren in emergencies such as car accidents or arrests . "Closers" then pretended to be lawyers demanding money to resolve these fake emergencies. The scam often involved multiple calls to the same victims, with claims of further emergencies to extract more money.

The scheme also involved "runners" who collected mon

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