For sure, what gets reported in the mainstream media would be reliable in that it would have had been checked and verified to have actually happened and should have included at least some tag to say police are following up on a complaint by the victim/victims.
But there are what appears to be "good samaritan" emails and online postings, urging people to be wary of the latest scam job. The one below seems to be of non-local origin. It is persuasive and plausible, but I have not seen reports about it, so it may just be someone's active mind at work.
But then again, if someone does come delivering flowers and wine... don't say you have not read this account below, which I came across recently:
Did this happen?
I want to let you all know that Frank 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 [someone 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 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 had actually delivered the gift to an adult, and had not left it on a door step if the recipient was 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 [ie NETS or credit card] so he was not handling cash and added that everything was properly accounted for.
Frank was there and got his credit card. "John" swiped the card on this small mobile machine he carried that also had a small screen upon which Frank 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Between last Thursday and Monday, $4,000 was withdrawn from our credit account at ATM machines in the north shore area. It appears that a dummy credit card was made using the details in the machine. Of course! They had Frank'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 three days of the month.
----------------------------------------------
True? I have my doubts. But then, who knows?
There was, however, a true story this week of an ATM machine having been stolen in Malaysia! I thought a better headline was needed for the story (the picture below shows an empty space where the ATM was):
Here's my suggested headline:
Heist of the machine
The inspiration for my headline is, of course, the third movie of this series:
No comments:
Post a Comment