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Perhaps, she says, a video could be created to help store clerks understand the signs of a consumer under stress who is under the scammer's ether.Ĭonsumers who are buying gift cards for a scammer might be overly anxious, appear worried or look scared, Stokes said. It's not enough to post signs that warn of potential gift card scams. Stokes wants to work with retailers to test intervention strategies at the store to stop consumers from losing their money buying gift cards for crooks.
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The crooks learn a bit about you in advance, often doing some research online, seem legitimate and can be extremely persuasive.Īfter all the scam warnings, one might be amazed that anyone would go out and put hundreds or thousands of dollars on gift cards for strangers.īut the demand for gift cards continues to build, enough so that the AARP has launched a special campaign designed to crack down on Gift Card Payment Scams, including information at its web site, Consumers also can call the AARP Fraud Watch Network at 87. "These are sophisticated criminal enterprises. "Once they have somebody under the ether, they can pretty much convince them of anything," Stokes said. When you're in this fog, you might not question why a Best Buy gift card can be used to pay a tax obligation to keep you out of jail or help you land a loan to cover bills.
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Professional con artists often refer to getting the victim under the ether. Kathy Stokes, AARP's director of fraud prevention programs, said the scammers have a winning formula for getting someone into a heightened emotional state. The median loss by individuals was $820 from January 2018 through September 2020, according to an FTC analysis. Individuals can lose several hundred - or even several thousand - dollars. An email from someone pretending to be your boss or minister who needs you to buy gift cards. It happens for many reasons: IRS and Social Security impersonation scams. Scams where someone pretends to be a grandchild or other family member or friend in need. Tony was handsome, spoke with a French accent, often was able to talk with her four or five times a day, and told her loving things, like: "I woke up this morning and I missed you."Īll the time, of course, there was another reason to send a gift card.įederal Trade Commission data indicates that consumers have reported spending nearly $245 million on gift cards that they used as payment to scammers from January 2018 through September 2020. They soon began talking on the Hangouts App. He was in Iraq, working for the United Nations as a surgeon. She soon thought that the man who called himself "Tony Richard" - pronounced as ri-Shard - was a second chance for happiness. The couple enjoyed fostering rescue collies.
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Her husband Bernard was a Teamsters Local 500 shop steward, according to his obituary online, worked as a tractor trailer driver and also drove a school bus where he knew the names and stories of each child on his bus. She had been married a long time, though, and missed her husband. She thought she was managing OK after being a widow for 11 years. He just needed her to help him deal with a payment while he was overseas. She saw that he had more than $2 million sitting there in the bank. He gave her access to see his Bank of America online account, for example, to prove that he could be trusted and he'd pay her back soon.
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Tony always seemed to know how to say the right things. "Normally, I don't reply to those but there was something about him that spoke to me," said Kleinert, 68, a retired executive secretary whose husband died in 2009 at their home in Glenolden, Pa., outside Philadelphia. She never imagined she'd feel an emotional spark like she did last summer when Tony sent her a friend request on Facebook during the pandemic. Kleinert is a kind, compassionate woman, and generally skeptical.
