Nationwide Crime Targeting Military Personnel Hits Colorado

AURORA, Colo. (CBS4) - A nationwide crime targeting men and women in the military has hit Colorado.

The criminals get a hold of personal information and then call people posing as relatives desperate for money. When the money is wired, the con artists disappear.

Jim George is a Desert Storm veteran. His son Greg is a private in the Marines, stationed at Camp Pendleton. Two weeks ago George's mother wired $2,442 to San Diego after receiving a call from someone pretending to be Greg. The bogus grandson said he'd been in a fight and needed the money to get out of jail. He said he would pay her back the next day.

"My mom's on a fixed income. She thinks, 'I can do without it for 24 hours.' She calls me a week later saying, 'Your son owes me some money,'" George said.

George told his mother Greg was in Los Angeles at the time of the fight. He searched the address on Google Earth and found a vacant lot. The phone number was also bogus.

"These young men and women are putting their lives on the line so we can live the way we want to live. And to take advantage of the family like that to make a dollar; it's unacceptable," George said.

The Arapahoe County District Attorney's Office says the criminals often know someone in the family.