(Sept. 2) -- A scam artist who tried to prey on a Maine grandmother is none the richer despite his effort to scare her into paying a $3,000 ransom for her grandson, a Marine on the war front in Afghanistan.
Bette Anne Cushman, of Hebron, Maine, said that a man called her around 10 a.m. Monday, claiming to be her grandson, Marine Staff Sgt. Luke Medlin. The caller said he was on leave in Canada and needed money.
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David Guttenfelder, Getty Images
Marine Staff Sgt. Luke Medlin takes cover from enemy fire June 20 in Afghanistan. Bette Anne Cushman, Medlin's grandmother, believes that a scam artist saw this photo and then tracked her down and phoned her with a fake ransom demand.
Although the phone reception was poor, Cushman said she could tell the man didn't have Medlin's Midwestern "twang."
"I began to think, 'Something here isn't quite right,'" she said Wednesday in a phone interview with AOL News. "I said, 'You are really pulling my leg -- this is quite cruel. What is it you want?'"
At that point, the call got ugly. The man said Medlin would be decapitated if Cushman didn't pay a $3,000 ransom. And he told Cushman that she would be harmed if she called the authorities.
Cushman can't recall exactly how long the call went on. But she ended it -- and reported it to police and the Pentagon.
"I was shaking like a leaf because he told me knew where I live," she said. "What really scared me was, how did he know I had a grandson in Afghanistan?"
Cushman guessed that the caller may have gotten information on her grandson from a June 20 wire service photo of him during a battle in Afghanistan. From there, the scam artist could have researched Medlin's family and tracked her down.
Cushman said an official at the Pentagon told her the caller probably wouldn't be caught.
"He said they are so clever at what they do that catching them is almost impossible. He said alerting the public is what's important," she said.
Maj. April Cunningham, a Pentagon spokeswoman, told AOL News the Defense Department doesn't know how many military families have been targeted by such hoaxes. People who get such calls should contact local police, as well as the relative's military unit or the family support group assigned to that branch of the military, she said.
To watch a video of Cushman talking about the hoax, visit the Web site of WMTW-TV , the Portland television station that first reported her story.
