Granddaughter Impostor

My girlfriend took a trip to various locations over seas this past summer (2010), one of those locations being Barcelona, Spain. On three occasions this past week (February 7, 8, and 9 of 2011) her grandparents received phone calls from a girl that sounded remarkably like my girlfriend and new pretty extensive information about her family. i.e. Uncle's name, terms of endearment for her grandmother and grandfather, parents' names, etc.

This girl claimed to be in a car accident and said that her nose was broken and that her friend was severely injured. The impostor acted very distressed and pleaded with the grandparents not to tell "her" parents but to send her money for hospital bills. They wire transferred $3,000 through Western Union to Barcelona.

I assume upon completion of the scam, the scammer upped the stakes. With excuses of needing to fix the car, needing to orchestrate flights home and additional hospital bills the total amount scammed ran up to $16,000.

I am absolutely livid at the moment trying to wrap my head around the fact that, most likely, I have no power over this situation and they will most likely not get their money back. However, if there is anyway possible that I can network or apply myself to help my girlfriend's grandparents or help prevent this from happening to others then I most certainly will.