Berta Aldrete of San Diego made the mistake of thinking the man who called her was a relative who lives in Mexico.

He was actually an impostor trying to cheat her out of money. Phone scams targeting Spanish-speakers in San Diego County are on the rise, according to one local law enforcement official.

"Are you Arturo?" Aldrete asked, referring to her cousin who lives in Mexico City. "Yes. You recognize me," the man answered and proceeded to tell her he and his family were driving across the border into San Diego and that he would call her again in a while.

Aldrete, 67, hung up when she began doubting who he said he was. The man has called two more times since the first call in February, which makes her nervous.

Yet Aldrete is considered one of the lucky ones because she was not tricked into sending money to an impostor in Mexico. When the phone scam is successful, callers convince their victims that they are in some sort of distress in Mexico and persuade them to send money to them.

"Some people fall for it," said Jesse Navarro, a community relations officer at the San Diego County District Attorney's Office. And "it's not limited to the elderly."

Aldrete knew the man who called her was trying to scam her because her son, who shares his father's name and is also Iisted in the phone book, also received a similar call from someone pretending to be a relative and asking for a $500 loan. He did not fall for the scam, either.

She doesn't want to change her phone number but is considering getting caller ID. The last suspicious call she received she told her caller he had the wrong number and hung up, she said.

Navarro said he hears about two or three cases each month where a victim sent money to an impostor in Mexico. "I just get a small portion of the calls," he said.

Navarro said three types of phone scams have been prevalent lately in San Diego County.

There's the one that Aldrete experienced, where someone pretending to be a relative is facing some kind of emergency and needs money.

The other two play on victims' fears. The caller pretends to be a smuggler or a kidnapper and threatens to hurt a loved one being held unless his demands for money are met. Very few of these calls are legitimate, Navarro said.

Virginia Mariscal of Chula Vista said she was nearly scammed recently after a caller pretending to be her son phoned her elderly mother in Rosarito Beach and told her he was being held in Tijuana on weapon charges but that a police sergeant would release him for $2,500.

Her mother called her and Mariscal said she was ready to make the payment when she decided to call her son on his cell phone to check on him and discovered that he was safe at work in San Diego. The impostor later called her mother and she scolded him for lying, Mariscal said.

Mariscal said her mother nearly got snared in the scam because she volunteered her grandson's name when the impostor called, which prolonged the conversation.

"When people call like that, don't say too much," Mariscal said.

Navarro said he's not advising people to dismiss threats of violence against a loved one but cautioned them to be skeptical and ready to make a police report.

"Is there bound to be a legitimate case of someone being held? Of course there is," Navarro said. "What we're telling people is to file a report. Call the police department. If it's a legitimate kidnapping, either the police department here or Mexican law enforcement can start an investigation."

Few victims file complaints, however, perhaps out of embarrassment or because they may not want to bring attention to their immigration status, he said.

Navarro said he fields phone calls about scams or meets people who have been targeted at public safety forums. Though most of the information he has is anecdotal, Navarro said he's confident saying the numbers are up during the past six months because he is hearing about them more frequently, he said.

The scams are disturbing also because the callers sometimes have personal information about the people they are trying to defraud.

Navarro said he's been told by Mexican law enforcement officers that information about targeted victims is gathered by people on the U.S. side of the border using phone books, the Internet or "through someone who knows them." People in prison or jail are also involved in gathering information, he said.

He urged people who get suspicious calls to be on the alert. "Before you send money, take some steps to verify. Before you get scammed, check out the call."

Leonel.sanchez@sandiegored.com