Brawley family receives two scam calls on same day

Brawley resident Robert Garcia said he and his wife received on Monday two calls from a man who said he was a family member. The caller first spoke to Mrs. Garcia in the morning. The man said he was their cousin. Mrs. Garcia hung up on the man because she didn’t believe him.

In the afternoon, Mr. Garcia got a call from the same phone number. The caller said he was their cousin and asked about others in the family without naming them. Mr. Garcia said he thinks the caller was waiting for him to offer information about the family. Mr. Garcia hung up on the caller. Mr. Garcia said he found through social media that seven other people in Calexico had received calls on Monday from a man claiming to be their cousin.

“And I kept on asking, ‘who is this?’ ‘oh, somos primos, we’re cousins, don’t you recognize my voice?’ and I’ve – ‘who’s this?’ ‘and how’s the family – como esta la familia?’ and then wondered about my mom. And wanted me to give him information like names and then he would take off from there,” Garcia said.

Mr. Garcia said he believes these type of scam calls might increase with the holiday season getting near. He said people should be careful and report these calls to the police.