Police are investigating a case of a Columbia resident who was targeted in a phone scam asking for bond money, the second scam of its type reported locally in six months.

According to a Columbia Police Department news release, someone posing as the victim’s grandson called to say he needed bond money sent by wire transfer to Mexico City. The caller had the victim talk to someone else posing as a Mexico City official and gave an address to send the money to.

CPD spokeswoman Latisha Stroer said the Columbia resident was contacted April 5.

“We’re not sure how the caller had his number, and we’re still investigating that part of it,” Stroer said. “They will probably subpoena the phone number and get any information they can about what state it came from, or if it actually came from Mexico, and go from there.”

Stroer said the victim sent money to the address he was given, later finding out his grandson was not in Mexico after all.

“Mexico obviously has different procedures, and I don’t know what those are, and I’m sure (the victim) didn’t either,” Stroer said. “He just heard that his grandson was in trouble in Mexico and took it at face value.”

A similar scam took place in Columbia in early November, in which two elderly residents received calls from someone posing as their grandsons and asking for bond money to be sent to Canada. In both incidents, the victims alerted CPD and discovered their relatives had not been arrested.

“There’s no way of knowing how often this happens because more people could be getting the calls, but ignoring them and thinking nothing of it,” Stroer said.

The CPD news release stated the department encourages residents to be skeptical and double-check the relative is indeed in trouble before sending money via wire transfer.

“There is no way to cover that money once it’s sent, so make sure it’s getting sent to friends or family when you use a money transferring service,” Stroer said. “The most important thing is to check it out before you send anything. A 30-second phone call could have saved (the victim) a whole bunch of money.”