Credit Card Scam

FYI - bit scary
thought i would pass it on

Snr Sgt Kaveney, Area Community Services Manager, Otara Police, warns us to be vigilant against this type of scam and asks that this warning be spread as far as possible.   

Snopes indicate that it also happened in Sydney back in October. The people responsible were caught; however it appears to have hit NZ.

"I want to let you all know that XXXXX and I have been the victims of credit card fraud this week and felt I should warn you all about the clever scam. It works like this:

Last Wednesday I had a phone call late morning from Express Couriers to ask if I was going to be home as he had a delivery for me. He said he would there in roughly an hour. He turned up with a beautiful basket of flowers and wine. I expressed my surprise as I wasn’t expecting anything like this and said I was intrigued to know who was sending me such a lovely gift. He said he was only
delivering the gift and the card was being sent separately (the card has never arrived). There was a consignment note with the gift...

He went on to explain that because the gift contained alcohol he has to charge the recipient $3.50 as proof that he has actually delivered to an adult, and not left it on a door step if the recipient is out, to be stolen or taken by children. This seemed logical and I offered to get the cash. He then said that the company required the payment to be by Eftpos so he’s not handling cash and everything is properly accounted for. XXXXX was there and got his credit card and ’John’ swiped the card on this small mobile machine that also had a small screen upon which XXXXX entered in his pin number. A receipt was printed out and given to us...

Between last Thursday and Monday $4,000 was withdrawn from our credit account at ATM machines in the North Shore and Rotorua area. It appears a dummy credit card was made using the details in the machine and of course, they had XXXXX’s pin number.

The Bank has stopped our cards and I’ve been to the Police this morning, where they confirmed that it is a definite scam and many households were hit during the first 3 days of October.

So PLEASE be wary of accepting a gift you’re not expecting especially if the card is not with it. We’ve all received gifts like this and would never dream that it could be such a despicable act. Please also let other female friends and relatives know... Hopefully, these fraudsters have ceased this activity by now but you never know. I wanted to warn all my friends.

P.S. I don’t think I’ll ever drink the wine - I’d probably choke on it!"

If you do have this happening try record as much detail as you can, Persons description, Vehicle driven, rego, colour make etc and phone the police with the details. 09 295 0200.

I so totally snopesed that thinking 'yea, that'll just be another bit of scaremongering'. Turns out it was true. Sure it actually happened in Australia, but hey.

I will watch out!

In some ways I am glad we got rid of our CC.