There is a new and very clever credit card scam — be wary of those who come bearing gifts.
It just happened to some people a week or so ago in Sydney, and it can pretty well now be happening anywhere else in Australia.
This is how they work:
A week ago, Gloria had a phone call from someone who said that he was from some outfit called: “Express Couriers” asking if she was going to be home because there was a package for her. The caller said that the delivery would arrive at her home in roughly an hour. And sure enough, about an hour later, a delivery man turned up with a beautiful basket of flowers and wine. Gloria was very surprised because it did not involve any special occasion or holiday. She certainly did not expect anything like it.
Intrigued about who would send her such a gift, she inquired as to who the sender was. The deliveryman’s reply was, he was only delivering the gift package. He alleged that a card was being sent separately. (The card never arrived.) There was also a consignment note with the gift.
The courier then went on to explain that because the gift contained alcohol, there was a $3.50 “delivery charge” as proof that he had actually delivered the package to an adult, and not just left it on the doorstep to just be stolen or taken by anyone.
This sounded logical and Gloria offered to pay him cash. The delivery man said that the company required the payment to be by credit or debit card only so that everything is properly accounted for.
Gloria’s husband, who, by this time, was standing beside her, pulled his wallet out of his pocket with the credit card. John, the “delivery man”, asked her husband to swipe the card on the small mobile card machine which had a small screen and keypad where the husband was also asked to enter the card’s PIN and security number. A receipt was printed out and given to the couple.
To their horrible surprise, in less than a week later, $4,000 had been charged and withdrawn from their credit card account at various ATM machines, particularly in the Eastern Suburbs area!
The “mobile credit card machine” which the deliveryman carried had all the information necessary to create a “dummy” card with all card details. Everything was captured after Gloria’s husband swiped his card and entered the requested PIN and security number.
Upon finding out the illegal transactions on the card, the bank was immediately notified and the credit card account had been closed.
They also went to the Police, where it was confirmed that it was definitely a scam because several households in the West have been similarly hit.
WARNING: Be wary of accepting any “surprise gift or package”, which you neither expected nor personally ordered, especially if it involves any kind of payment as a condition of receiving the gift or package. Also, never accept anything if you do not personally know or there is no proper identification of who the sender is.
Above all, the only time you should give out any personal credit/debit card information is when you yourself initiated the purchase or transaction!