COEUR d'ALENE - Dian Burell knew something was suspicious when she received a disturbing phone call last week.

The young man on the line claimed to be her grandson, in trouble with the police while vacationing in Haiti. He was hysterically crying. He told Burell, "Grandma, they found drugs in my car and I need $3,000." She skeptically listened as his sob story unfolded. He sounded just like her grandson. But he wasn't.

It was a scam.

Burell, in her 70s, heard it all the last two times scammers rang her house phone and posed as her distressed grandson.

"They appeal to the motherly, or grandmotherly, instinct," she said.

This time, she set the wailing scammer straight with some grandmotherly advice.

"I said, 'You know, honey, I'll tell you what I'm going to do. Here's how I'm going to help you. You need to straighten your life out,'" Burell said. She continued as the impostor listened. '"You're being dishonest, so please listen to what I have to say, because I know this is a scam."' She hung up the phone, no fortune lost.

But then it rang again moments later, and she wasn't surprised that it was the same guy trying the whole thing again.

"They don't even give up after you expose them," she said. "There are still gullible people out there who don't realize this is going on."

Burell didn't lose any money this time, but when they tried to pull the wool over her eyes with the same bit a few years ago, she was panicked and ready to mortgage her house to rescue her grandson.

Luckily, the real grandson was a cell phone call away, and answered when she frantically dialed him. He was at work, nowhere near Haiti, and Burell knew she had been moments away from being another victim in a financial scam targeted at elderly, retired, goodhearted people who want to help their "grandchildren" in crisis.

"It's all a scam to go after retired peoples' savings, and they take it all," she said.

Burell mentioned an elderly woman she knows who fell for a similar scam, and lost her life savings.

"They are preying on grandparents and I don't know how they are getting the names," she said. She said she announced the incident to her church, reminding everyone that these scams frequently happen to the elderly, many who send the money without looking farther into the claims. Many seniors who are duped don't even report it, because they may not know who to tell or they may feel embarrassed. Reports of fraudulent phone calls from impostors, like what happened to Burell, are happening across the country as con artists pilfer the nest eggs of the nation's aging and retired.

People are advised to notify police if they believe they are being targeted.

"Contact the police if you have been a victim of a scam," said Coeur d'Alene Police Sergeant Christie Wood. "We will do our best to investigate who is responsible but it is very likely we will have few leads to go on." Wood said the perpetrators usually call from other countries and are therefore difficult to track. The FBI will be contacted if it is a " large cybercrime."

Wood advises for people to "guard their personal information and understand that if it seems suspicious then they should hang up."

One can never be too careful in today's technological world.

"People need to be diligent in protecting themselves from becoming a victim," Wood said.

The National Crime Prevention Council's website states that "fraudulent telemarketers direct anywhere from 56 to 80 percent of their calls at older Americans." According to the National Council on Aging, seniors and retired people are thought to have loaded bank accounts while being easy targets. A list of the top 10 senior scams can be found atwww.ncoa.org.