Historical photo:
Great depression KIDS!
Holiday scam, today's story.
I received this from a friend. Odds are this will never happen to you BUT better forewarned so I will sacrifice a blog entry.
The following is a recounting of the incident from
a victim remember confidence men are good at what they do:
The intended victim gets a call from a courier
service asking if someone would be home because there was a package for him/her
that required a signature.
The caller said that the delivery would arrive in roughly an hour. An hour later, a uniformed delivery man turned up with a beautiful basket of flowers and a bottle of wine. I was very surprised I certainly didn't expect anything like it. Intrigued, I inquired as to who the sender was.
The caller said that the delivery would arrive in roughly an hour. An hour later, a uniformed delivery man turned up with a beautiful basket of flowers and a bottle of wine. I was very surprised 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 greeting 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
someone of 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 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.
The guy said everything was in order, and
wished us good day.
NOW the "fake mobile credit card machine,"
which the deliveryman carried now had name, number and pin.
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the following Monday, $4,000 had been charged/withdrawn from our credit/debit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.
My comment:
I cut this short, you get the point.
This is a slick scam. Of course it would be nice to get a shot (Or selfie) of you
and the delivery man before you refused to slide the card. Odds this will not happen to you , but it could.
PS: Wisdom from the Farmer:
YOU CANNOT
UNSAY A CRUEL WORD.
The 1958 Chevy
was a great one for customizing
The depression - I think the kids that went through it - their lives were changed forever.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the warning - gosh you just can't seem to trust anyone these days. Amazing.
Sandie
thanks for the heads up. a terrible scam for sure.
ReplyDeleteThat's disgusting!!! The more we shed light on these vermin, perhaps they'll run the other direction. One can hope.
ReplyDeleteIts so easy to get caught up in scams like this; one always has to be on their toes!
ReplyDeletebetty
The great depression. It is hard to believe that something like that could ever happen again in this country but anything is possible.
ReplyDeleteScams are everywhere this days and way too often they get away with it too. Good to aways be aware and share what is going on so others don't get caught. In this day and age when so many have so much it's good to remember the depression days when people lost everything. Good reminder that what we should be thankful for what we got, it could all be gone tomorrow.
ReplyDeletewhen I look
ReplyDeleteat the water
in the photo
at the top
of your page
focus on one spot
without blinking
the water seems
to be moving
try it :)