Very clever credit card scam

In many cases, when you receive an email with some dire warning about a scam or a virus (that even Microsoft can’t fix), it pays to be sceptical. Especially if it also tells to forward it to everyone in your address book straight away to warn them. At best they are fake – a bit of mischief-making. At worst, they can have viruses embedded in them that will spread to everyone you send it to, or forward all your friends email addresses somewhere.

A couple of good websites to check the accuracy of these sorts of emails are www.snopes.com and www.hoax-slayer.com

Occasionally, these emails can have a basis of truth to them.

An example was received by one of our local residents last week. The wording of the email in full was as follows:

Very Clever Credit Card Scam!

Give this wide distribution.

This scam is actually very clever.

Just when you thought you'd heard it all.

Be very careful out there!

Beware of people bearing gifts.

The following is a recounting of the incident from the victim:

Wednesday a week ago, I had a phone call from someone saying that he was

from some outfit called: "Express Couriers,"(The name could be any courier

company) He asked if I was going to be home because there was a package for

me that required a signature .

The caller said that the delivery would arrive at my home in roughly an

hour. Sure enough, about an hour later, a uniformed delivery man turned up

with a beautiful basket of flowers and a bottle of wine. I was very

surprised since there was no special occasion or holiday, and I certainly

didn't expect anything like it. Intrigued, I inquired as to who the sender

was.

The courier replied, "I don't know, I'm only delivering the package."

Apparently, 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/ verification charge," providing proof that he had

actually delivered the package to an adult (of legal drinking age), and not

just left it on the doorstep where it could be stolen or taken by anyone,

especially a minor.

This sounded logical and I offered to pay him cash. He then said that the

delivery company required payment to be by credit or debit card only, so

that everything is properly accounted for, and this would help in keeping a

legal record of the transaction.

He added couriers don't carry cash to avoid loss or likely targets for

robbery.

My husband, who by this time was standing beside me, pulled out his credit

card, and 'John,' the "delivery man," asked him to swipe the card on a small

mobile card machine with a small screen and keypad. Frank, my husband, was

asked to enter his PIN number and a receipt was printed out. He was given a

copy of the transaction. He guy said everything was in order, and wished us

good day.

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.

Apparently the "mobile credit card machine," which the deliveryman carried

now had all the info necessary to create a "dummy"  card with all our card

details including the PIN number.

Upon finding out about the illegal transactions on our card, we immediately

notified the bank which issued us a new 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!

PLEASE   Pass this on, it may just prevent someone else from being swindled.

A quick check of the Snopes and Hoax-slayer websites shows that while this incident probably didn’t happen “Wednesday a week ago” as the email states, it is based on real events that took place in Sydney back in 2008. A scam pretty much along these lines occurred over a couple of weeks in October/November 2008.

While the culprit was arrested and there don’t seem to be any records of something similar occurring again, the Sydney victims lost a total of over $30,000 in this scam.

So although there is no evidence that this particular scam happening recently, it is a reminder to ALWAYS be careful with your credit card details, especially when it involves something you didn’t order and was not expecting.

And, just sometimes, there is some truth on the internet. So be careful with your credit card details over this holiday period.