Greg's Corner

Scammers have a lie for every occasion

By Greg Collier

As much as scammers are a plague on society, sometimes we’re almost in wonder of the ingenuity of some scams. We often imagine what would become of scammers if they plied their ingenuity and skill toward a legitimate purpose. Unfortunately, one of their skills is lying like a master politician. Scammers always have a response to any question their victims may have, and what makes it worse, is that they’re convincing.

For example, an Arizona couple almost fell for a customer service scam. They received a call from someone claiming to be from Walmart. They were asked if they had made a recent purchase for $3,000. The caller was said to have such detailed information that they knew the couple’s address down to the apartment number.

When the couple told the caller they didn’t make a purchase like that, the caller said they would transfer the couple to their bank’s fraud department. Instead, the next person who got on the line was someone claiming to be a Scottsdale police officer.

The supposed police officer told the couple their bank was being investigated for fraud. They claimed that a bank employee gave out their financial information and their account was about to be frozen. The caller said for them to protect their account, they would need to take $3000 out of their bank and buy gift cards with the money. When the couple asked why they would need to buy gift cards, the caller didn’t hesitate with a response.

“He said because, these people who contacted you know your home address and your apartment number, and you will be robbed.”

Thankfully, when the couple were looking at gift cards, a store employee realized they were being scammed and hung up on the scammers for them.

Like we’ve always said, anyone can fall victim to a scam because scammers are very good at what they do and act very convincing while doing it.

The best way to protect yourself from scams like this is to have knowledge of the scam beforehand. In a scam like this, Walmart is never going to call a customer to ask them about a large purchase. If you do happen to talk to Walmart’s customer service, they do not have the ability to transfer your call to your bank or your local police department. If there was such a matter that required your bank’s or the police’s attention, any customer service rep would tell the customer to call those entities themselves.

As far as the police go, they’ll never tell you to buy gift cards for any reason. Gift cards are used as currency by scammers because they can be easily converted into material goods and are virtually untraceable.

Lastly, if the caller tells you that you can’t speak to anyone about the matter, they’re trying to prevent them from being found out and stopping the scam. No one can force you not to talk.