According
to Snopes this is true. See http://www.snopes.com/fraud/
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$4,000 had been charged/withdrawn from our credit/debit account at various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!
If you pass this on, it may just prevent someone else from being swindled!=
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!
If you pass this on, it may just prevent someone else from being swindled!=
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