‘It’s a fraud if anyone suggests that:’ over a dozen Nanaimo residents fall victim to gift card-based bank scams

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The effort from scammers has proved fruitful recently.

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Victims ranging in age from late 20’s to late 60’s coughed up between $1000 and $2,500 each before realizing they’d been duped.

The unsuspecting person will purchase the cards, call the scammers back and read off an account number then never hear from them again.

“No credible agency will ever be dealing with transactions via gift cards or asking you to buy a pre-paid credit card, it will not happen and it’s a fraud if anyone suggests that to you,” O’Brien said.

One Nanaimo person was almost a statistic, with employees at Best Buy at Country Club Centre convincing the person not to purchase $3,500 of pre-paid credit cards.

A new variation of the scam is helping trick more people.

Scammers are telling victims to add *72 before dialing a specific number, which according to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre, is used to forward call traffic to a different number.

“If *72 is dialed by the victim, suspects will receive all incoming calls including legitimate financial institution phone calls that may potentially flag actual fraudulent charges by the suspects,” an Aug. 24 advisory read.

Once victims realize what’s happened, it’s often too late.

O’Brien said there’s very little Nanaimo officers can do in these situations aside from public education. The number used are frequently spoofed and stem from international voice over IP (VOIP), or internet, phone lines.

“If you feel the bank is calling you, go to their legitimate website, go to your bank, call the bank but don’t call the number somebody calls you on. Look at your own transactions on your cards.”

More information on the *72 variation of the scam, along with details on the over 200 scams being run at any one time, is available at the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre website.

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