Posted on 11/25/2014 6:43:48 AM PST by sodpoodle
BE ON THE ALERT, THE HOLIDAY SEASON IS COMING NEW SCAM
Just when you think you've heard it all. Here comes another scam. This scam is very clever. Be very careful out there! One could easily fall for this -
beware of people bearing gifts!
There is a new and clever credit card scam. Please circulate this. Someone it happened to says it works like this:
Wednesday a week ago, I had a phone call from someone who said that he was from some outfit called: "Express Couriers" asking if I was going to be home because there was a package for me, and the caller said that the delivery would arrive at my home in roughly an hour. And sure enough, about an hour later, a uniformed delivery man turned up with a beautiful basket of flowers and wine. I was very surprised since it did not involve any special occasion or holiday, and I certainly didn't expect anything like it. Intrigued about who would send me such a gift, I inquired as to who the sender is. The delivery man's reply was, he was only delivering the gift package, but allegedly a card was being sent separately; (the card has never arrived!). There was also a consignment note with the gift
. He then went on to explain that because the gift contained alcohol, there was a $3.50 "delivery charge" as proof that he had actually delivered the package to an adult, and not just left it on the doorstep where it could be stolen or taken by anyone.
This sounded logical and I offered to pay him cash. He then said that the company required the payment to be by credit or debit card only so that Everything is properly accounted for.
My husband, who by this time was standing beside me, pulled his wallet out of his pocket with the credit/debit card, and 'John', the "delivery man", asked my husband to swipe the card on the small mobile card machine which had a small screen and keypad where Frank was also asked to enter the card's PIN and security number. A receipt was printed out and given to us.
To our horrible surprise, between Thursday and the following Monday, $4,000 had been charged/withdrawn from our credit/debit account at various ATM machines. It appeared that somehow the "mobile credit card machine" which the delivery man carried now had all the info necessary to create a "dummy" card with all our card details after my husband swiped our card and entered the requested PIN and security number.
Upon finding out about the illegal transactions on our card, we immediately notified the bank which issued us the card, and our credit/debit account was closed. We also personally went to the Police, where it was confirmed that it is definitely a scam because several households had been similarly hit.
WARNING: Be wary of accepting any "surprise gift or package", which you neither expected nor personally ordered, especially if it involves any kind of payment as a condition of receiving the gift or package. Also, never accept anything if you do not personally know or there is no proper identification of who the sender is.
Above all, the only time you should give out any personal credit/debit card information is when you yourself initiated the purchase or transaction!
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Another reason I’m glad I don’t drink. You won’t catch me paying a delivery fee for a bottle of wine.
This is true:
http://www.snopes.com/fraud/sales/express.asp
As soon as he said there was a charge for delivery on a “gift” I didn’t request, I would have declined.
I received a card in the mail yesterday saying that DMC Services had tried to deliver a package and left a number for me to call to arrange a delivery time.
Since I hadn’t ordered anything and wasn’t expecting any packages I Googled the company name and phone number.
I found a post by someone saying it was a scam. The package is a bottle of laundry detergent and if you allow the delivery they will show up to offer a “free” water quality test.
Needless to say, the notice went in the trash.
You are aware that snopes claims this scam has been around since 2008?
http://www.snopes.com/fraud/sales/express.asp
The email is almost verbatim from the description on snopes. Any time you get one of these ‘warning’ emails, check with snopes.
You can add money at places like WalMart and 7-11. They are very handy cards to carry for limited budgets or to pass on to a teenager or spouse whom you wouldn't trust with a normal credit card.
"My wife has our cards with her, but she's only a minute or two away. let me call her." Then call police.
just last week my 78 yr old mother got a call from someone claiming to be my son - say he was in jail and needed money wired to him....Mom was hip to it and started pressing for details - and soon the call was cut short
You have to question everything these days. The one time you let your guard down you may become a victim.
I must be more fortunate, than some, I guess.
All my ‘phone business’ is in the same area code, so anything outside, is suspect.
I have a very hungry ‘spam folder’ in my email supplier, to where i have to ‘rescue’ one or two, from senders of desired information.
i have not used, nor needed a credit card, since 1986, nor any other method of legalized usury, either.
Let’s see, the rule is never give your card to anyone asking for it, only give it to those you are asking for a transaction. Violated rule #1. Got suckered as expected.
Rule #2, if a transaction is unique and you have never seen such a transaction before, such as alcohol deliveries and a transaction request to be paid by the recipient (I’ve never heard of such a thing), then you are being suckered.
That’s the “Grandparent Scam”. It actually works on many elderly.
Beware anything that doesn’t accept cash.
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