CLARKSVILLE, Ind. – Police in southern Indiana say a Clarksville couple lost $8,200 to a con artist who called them pretending to be their grandson and said he desperately needed cash because he’d been in an overseas car crash.

The News and Tribune reports (http://bit.ly/zp5vHj) that a 79-year-old man told Clarksville police last week that he and his wife had fallen victim to a “grandparent scam.”

He told officers a frantic man claiming to be their grandson called them Jan. 11 saying he’d been in a car crash in Barcelona, Spain, but urged them not to tell his parents.

In repeated calls, he asked for money for car repairs and hospital bills. The couple wired four payments totaling more than $8,200 through Western Union to Barcelona before learning their grandson wasn’t overseas.