Wednesday, December 12, 2012

FW: Clever scammers....coming with gifts

 

 

From: barb&bob gibbons [mailto:pickledpair@shaw.ca]
Sent: Wednesday, December 12, 2012 2:04 PM
To: AL Boychuk; Alan McCann; Alex Stavert; Andy MacKechnie; Andy Nikiforuk; Arnie Gaudin; Arnie Loxam; Barry Moore; Ben Eastwood; Bill Cackett; Bill Chrapko; Bill Davis; Bill Marshall; 'Bill Patrick'; Blu Alexander; Bob Bennett; Bob Carter; 'Bob Gibbons'; Bob Gislason; Bob Shewchuk; Brad Sparrow; Brian Game; Bruce Hnidan; Bruce McBride; Bruce Switzer; Butch Balch; Byron Tucker; Cam Wilton; Carl Eifler; Charles Proctor; Chris Braiden; Chris Suvan ; Chuck Bonsant; Chuck Maillet; Darrell Oswald; Dave Armstrong; Dave Laurie; Dave Mcilwaine; Dave Monson; Dave Newsham; Dave Thomas; David Graham; 'David Percy'; David Salloum; Davis Tucker; Dean Chan; 'Derek Coke -Kerr'; Dick Scotnicki; Don Culbertson; Don Fox; Don Goss; Don Whidden; donsmary@telus.net; Doug Goss; Doug Monaghan; Doug Ross; Doug Seniuk; 'Duke Edmundson'; Eark Hadfield; Eli McQuaid; Eric Bostrom; Frank Austin; Frank Hunt; Fraser Rea; Gale Fester; Gary Cunningham; Gary Weisbrot; Gino Narduzzi; Gord Hostland; Gord McLean; Graeme Young; 'Graywood Cook'; Harvey Lund; Hugh Kerr; Hugh Wyndham; Ian Bradley; Ian Kerr; Jack Harvey; Jack Morrison; Jack Stewart; Jeff Babiy; Jeff Gauf; Jeff McGee; Jens Goldgrabe; Jim Greenough; Jim Hudson; Jim McLachlin; John Beck; John Bradley; John Butler; John Rockliff; John Shaw; John Wells; Kelly Chow; Ken Auch; Ken Burrows; Ken Kirk; Kevin Seibert; Kim MacKenzie; Lou Davidson; 'Robert Gibbons Jr'
Subject: FW: Clever scammers....coming with gifts

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yes, it checks out:

 

 

L.

 

 

 

 

 

 Clever scammers.

 

This has been checked out on Snopes and it is true.  With Christmas coming be careful with your credit cards.


MOST OF US KNOW THERE ARE SCAMS ABOUT BUT THIS one is VERY CUNNING.
There is a new and clever credit card scam - be wary of those who come bearing gifts. The scam involves a gift package & could also contain unwanted items so be extra careful not to accept it.  
It just happened to friends a week or so ago in Sydney, and it can pretty well now be happening anywhere else in the world.
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 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 deliveryman'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 to just 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 deliveryman carried now had all the necessary info 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 that had issued the cards to us, and closed our credit and debit accounts.
We also went to the Police and they confirmed that it is definitely a scam as 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) 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!

Please pass this on; it may just prevent someone else from being swindled by these scumbags.

No virus found in this message.
Checked by AVG - www.avg.com
Version: 2013.0.2805 / Virus Database: 2634/5946 - Release Date: 12/08/12

 

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