An old scam has come to life again. Bend police have been getting an elevated number of complaints about a telephone scam targeting senior citizens. The caller will claim they are a grandchild of the victim, saying they are in another country and in jail and need about $4000 bail money. "And then they'll put somebody else on the phone saying I’m the police officer or the judge or whatever they're putting on there saying 'we need $4000 immediately or he'll be held on this and that and this and that.' of course, grandparents love their grand children, so they get very upset and they want to try to help their grandchild. And to they're sending off some of this money requested. And unfortunately its Western Union, and it's incredibly difficult to track this money, nearly impossible." Lt. Brian Kindel with Bend Police says the callers have been successful in several instances, and wanted the general public to be alerted to the scams. Kindel says it's a good time to talk to your elderly parents about the scam, and check on their bank accounts to see what activity is going on, if there is a red flag, contact police. Information on these and other phone scams is found at the Federal Trade Commission website. You can Google "telephone scams” or “Internet scams.”