Waterford — Police are reminding residents not to fall for "grandparent scam" phone calls — calls they say they've investigated with regularity for quite some time.

According to police, the scam has many variations, but generally consists of a person calling and claiming to be a relative who's been arrested, lost a passport, lost a wallet or something similar.

The person then asks the victim to send money immediately via wire. Often the caller also asks the victim not to contact other relatives so he or she won't be embarrassed.

Sometimes, police said, the callers either use a bad telephone connection to mask their voices or say they're sick to explain their voices.

Police are encouraging people who receive such calls to attempt to contact the relative independently once they've hung up.

Police also said people shouldn't wire money to someone claiming to be in custody because police wouldn't allow that person to leave to collect the money from an authorized money-wiring business.

Any Waterford resident who's suffered a monetary loss as a result of this scam is asked to contact town police at (860) 442-9451.