The midmorning call was unexpected, unwelcome and unsettling, but Argie Leech was pleasant and polite.

When she answered the phone recently, the caller greeted her with, "Hi, Grandma."

Mrs. Leech, 81, replied: "Oh, honey, I think you have the wrong number."

But the caller persisted. "Oh, no, I'm your favorite granddaughter. You're my grandma."

Mrs. Leech, who has two daughters and two grandsons -- but no granddaughters -- asked the caller to identify herself. The caller, stumped with a question she couldn't answer, hung up.

Mrs. Leech, a retired senior administrative assistant, said the call "sounded artificial. It sounded like a woman pretending to be a young girl. She was overly sweet."

Among other things, the caller had broken one of Mrs. Leech's cardinal rules: Don't call before noon. "I enjoy watching late-night movies and I like to sleep in."

She suspects the caller was a crook ---- she was -- and asked if I would warn readers about her and her ilk. I thanked her, told her that some city and suburban readers had fallen victim to such calls and explained how they work.

The scam targets elderly people. A senior citizen receives a call from a person posing as a grandson or granddaughter who has a problem -- such as car problems or being arrested for speeding and taken to jail -- and needs money wired immediately.

The callers try to get as much information upfront as they can and use it to further the scam. For example, if the potential victim, concerned about the phony relative's "dire" circumstances, asks, "Is that you, Joey?" the caller says "yes," "apologizes" for troubling the person and elaborates on the need for money.

If the victim says the voice doesn't sound like Joey, the caller blames it on a cold, sore throat or bad phone connection. The caller repeatedly tells the victim that the money, usually several thousand dollars, is needed "right away" and gives instructions on how to wire it.

Although employees who work for businesses where money can be wired are aware of the scam, they walk a fine line in alerting potential victims.

They don't want their customers to be cheated out of their hard-earned money, but they don't want to appear to be prying.

If victims are adamant about sending the money, sometimes to a location in Canada, the crooks win.

After her caller hung up, Mrs. Leech pressed • 69 on her phone and got the number of the woman who called her. The first three digits were 416 -- Ontario, Canada.

If you have elderly relatives who might fall victim to this scheme, warn them about it. Urge them to call you about any "send money" schemes. A retired attorney in the South Hills wishes he had asked more questions when he got a call last year. He lost $7,000.

Alison Huettner, of Shadyside, a runner, had a call on her answering machine from a man with an accent so thick that she wasn't sure of his name or his company. He left a phone number with an 876 area code -- Jamaica.

Intrigued, she called the number and spoke to a man who identified himself as "Michael." He said he worked for "Global Fitness" and asked if she had run the Clarion Marathon in June. She said she had not. He said she had won some money in a lottery. She wisely hung up the phone.

"Next time I won't even try to call back," she said. Good idea.

Returning such calls can be an expensive proposition. If you don't recognize an area code, check the front of your local telephone book, where are codes are listed in numerical order or call the operator.

When someone is down and out, there always seem to be others determined to keep them that way -- or worse.

The state attorney general's office is warning job-seekers to be "extremely cautious" about Internet employment offers that ask them to e-mail copies of their personal credit reports.

Credit reports are gold mines of information for identity thieves because they contain everything from bank and credit card accounts to Social Security numbers.

He said legitimate businesses that require credit reports as part of the employee-screening process can get them directly from the major credit bureaus. For more information, go to www.attorneygeneral.gov or call 1-800-441-2555.