Scammers Often Prey On Elderly, But This Grandmother Caught Onto The Con

CHICAGO (CBS) -- We commonly hear about scammers preying on senior citizens, but one savvy grandma called out a fraudster before he swindled her.

Rose Willis took a bad fall over the holidays. She is on the road to recovery and looking forward to resuming her favorite pastimes.

"I can actually move my thumb. I couldn't move my thumb before the surgery. I like to do the adult coloring ... people used to compliment me."

But it turns out Rose has another talent -- catching onto scammers. She says someone pretending to be from the group Christians Against Poverty reached out to her and offered her $25,000 in grant money.

"I'm a senior citizen and I need the money. I've got a car; it's 21 years old, and it doesn't work very well, and I can't afford to fix it," she said.

She says he almost fell for it and filled out the so-called application.

But then came the catch. She had to pay $500 in UPS shipping fees to have the cash mailed to her. Best of all? She could even pay it in Bitcoin or gift cards.

"That right there said to me, this is a scam," she said.

And when the scammer tried to convince her it was the real deal, she contacted the actual organization to confirm she was being swindled.

Then she reached out to us.

"I just want people to be aware that it's an issue, and they are basically preying on people in my age group," she said.

While Rose still has some recovering to do, she's grateful to have walked away unharmed by this scammer.

"That would have been a whole lot worse situation than what I am in right now," she said.