Posted on 12/23/2019 9:28:50 PM PST by SunkenCiv
Holly Kay bought eight $1,000 Macys gift cards at a California mall because a scammer told her to on the Saturday before Thanksgiving. Forty minutes later, she bought $13,000 more in gift cards at that store.
The ease with which Ms. Kay was able to complete those purchases underscores the growing popularity of gift cards among scammers seeking quick, hard-to-trace ways to take money from their victims.
Buying multiple gift cards is often easier than initiating a wire transfer, because the cards are easily purchased and the numbers can be sent instantly by phone or text message to a fraudster who might otherwise have to wait for a large bank transaction to clear, law-enforcement officials say.
The gift cards Ms. Kay, 68 years old, purchased at Macys Inc. were among nearly 120 that she bought from several retailers in one week, as part of a scam in which a fraudster told her she was helping catch a hacker who had compromised her home computer.
At the fraudsters direction, she also spent $19,000 in one hour on gift cards at a Nordstrom store. The scammer remained on the phone with her for most of the transactions and at times had remote control of her computer, coaching her on how to answer cashier questions about why she was buying the gift cards.
Gift cards sold by large retailers are increasingly used by scammers in all flavors of fraud, including robocallers impersonating government officials or online criminals pretending to be a persons employer, law-enforcement officials say. How companies respond to scammers embrace of their gift cards varies widely.
(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...
I think hanging is more appropriate there. After fair trials.
Phone scammers don’t need trials. :)
Verizon charges $7 to speak to a human????
Say What?
Seriously? For anything?
Kitboga on twitch.tv and YouTube trolls these scammers for hours at a time. Very fun.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNziOoXDBeg
Here’s a guy that disguises his voice (often as an old woman’s). Then he ends up hijacking the scammer’s PC, and using the scammer’s gift cards against the scammer!
Oops - you beat me to it. Yeah - he’s my favorite!
I’m the worst gift buyer around.
Cards are great. Let people choose instead of me guessing.
Streamed on YouTube.
Streamed on YouTube.
My father got scammed twice that I know of. Once was the “your computer has a virus” scam where he paid $1000 for lifetime virus protection. He lost all of that money. Another time it was sending cash to “Publishers’ Clearinghouse” to pay fees to claim the big prize. Fortunately the postal inspector shut that scum’s PO box and returned most of my dad’s money. I think I finally got through to him that no one legit needs his cash or checking account number right now.
Thanks!
I may try that. :^)
That’s what really makes me mad about this kind of thing. I took care of my mother for ten years as Alzheimer’s slowly took her faculties away. Numerous times I intervened when phone scammers had her on the line.
I had her credit card and banking info so she couldn’t have given them what they wanted but the fact that they were trying to take advantage of her just enraged me. I couldn’t help but think about the people who have no one to help them that are being financially ruined and have no way to recover from it.
I am sure some of things I said to them were criminally actionable but I knew that criminals weren’t going to call the authorities on me.
It’s not easy that’s for sure. I was very lucky that my mother trusted me completely and that never wavered right to her dying day even though almost nothing was left of her mind.
Part of the problem was that she, like many in her generation, were raised to be trusting and polite to everyone. It made her a very sweet person that almost everyone liked but also an easy mark when her mind began to slip.
All I can say is I cant believe anyone is that stupid.
$7 to renew a credit card that had expired.
‘No way to accomplish that using Verizon’s electronic telephone-answering “tree”.
At $150+ per month, and frequent drops, Verizon has turned even more disappointing than T-mobile before that.
If I understand correctly, you are saying it cost you $7 to talk to an agent to renew an expired credit card?
That is insane...
I have not been particularly happy w/AT&T and was thinking about changing...taking advantage of holiday deals...\
But at least AT&T doesn’t charge for customer service...at least not yet...
I had Verizon in past and was thinking about returning to them if they had a good holiday deal, but sounds like maybe not such a good idea...
Leave it expired. When the charge fails I bet they call you
It’s amazing how easily they can be manipulated by a complete stranger but if I try to get them to do anything, they don’t believe anything I say.
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