New Scam

[percy]

New Very Clever Scam





A scam clever enough to catch some seniors off guard!
Tell your friends, kids and neighbours…..beware.
This is very clever. I would probably fall for it, if not warned. Give this wide distribution. This scam is very clever. Just when you thought you'd heard it all. Be very careful out there! Beware of people bearing gifts!

The following is a recounting of the incident from the victim:

Wednesday a week ago, I had a phone call from someone saying that he was from some outfit called: "Express Couriers," (The name could be any courier company). He asked if I was going to be home because there was a package for me that required a signature.

The caller said that the delivery would arrive at my home in approximately an hour. Sure enough, about an hour later, a uniformed delivery man turned up with a beautiful basket of flowers and a bottle of wine. I was very surprised, since there was no special occasion or holiday, and I, certainly, didn't expect anything like it. Intrigued, I inquired as to who the sender was.

The courier replied, "I don't know, I'm only delivering the package."

Apparently, a greeting card was being sent separately. (The card has never arrived!) There was also a consignment note with the gift.

He then went on to explain that because the gift contained alcohol, there was a $3.50 "delivery/ verification charge," providing proof that he actually had delivered the package to an adult (of legal drinking age), and not just left it on the doorstep where it could be stolen or taken by anyone, especially a minor.

This sounded logical and I offered to pay him cash. He then said that the delivery company required payment to be by credit or debit card only, so that everything is properly accounted for, and this would help in keeping a legal record of the transaction.

He added, "Couriers don't carry cash to avoid loss or being, likely, targets for robbery."

My husband, who by this time was standing beside me, pulled out his credit card, and the "delivery man," asked him to swipe the card on a small mobile card machine with a small screen and keypad. Frank, my husband, was asked to enter his PIN number and a receipt was printed out. He was given a copy of the transaction.

The guy said everything was in order, and wished us good day, and left.

To our horrible surprise, between Thursday and the following Monday, $4,000 had been charged/withdrawn from our credit/debit account at various ATM machines.

Apparently, the "mobile credit card machine," which the deliveryman carried, now, had all the info necessary to create a "dummy" card with all our card details including the PIN number.

Upon finding out about the illegal transactions on our card, we, immediately, notified the bank which issued us a new card, and our credit/debit account was closed.

We, also, personally, went to the police, where it was confirmed that it is, definitely, a scam because several households had 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!

PLEASE, pass this on, it may just prevent someone else from being swindled.

THIS IS A MUST READ AND… PLEASE LET FAMILY AND FRIENDS KNOW, TOO!

[pedro.nz]

Thank you - always very wary anyway but good to know about latest scams...

[Entrep]

Beer and wine delivery has been available for yonks in NZ. Can't imagine many would pay the fee.

Where did this info come from? Reads like one of the email chains that would start in the early 2000s with the aim of just being forwarded to as many people as possible.

[Rawz]

Thats what i thought Entrep

Good to see its still going strong 20 years later lol

[Joshuatree]

Thanks Percy,some days I would be sucked in by scams like this.

[Cricketfan]

Not that new: https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/de...-courier-scam/ And given it's nearly word-for-word the same, I'd say the it's more the email that's the scam rather than anything else. Either that, or poor old Frank needs to learn not to be so gullible after 14 years!

[Snoopy]

Beer and wine delivery has been available for yonks in NZ. Can't imagine many would pay the fee.

Where did this info come from? Reads like one of the email chains that would start in the early 2000s with the aim of just being forwarded to as many people as possible.

Sounds like a very expensive scam to run. Having some guy driving around in a fake courier company van in a bogus uniform with a fake portable bank terminal delivering 'free' flowers and wine? $100 odd to 'recruit' each scam victim sounds a very high price to pay. Technically it could work, as since the banks introduced paywave, it is possible to scan your card and produce a fake card that can operate without you disclosing your pass code

As an aside, my cousin got scammed this way in London by someone walking by with a skimming machine using 'skimwave' that could read his credit card details from his back pocket. That is why these days -since paywave- my credit card sits in a drawer at home. I use it to buy stuff on line, but it never leaves the house.

But back to this purported ruse. These days with all the home security camera's around, I would think our van driver would be picked up by the plod very quickly. I think this is just a chain letter with no real basis behind it. While technically possible, It is hard to fathom how such a scam could ever work in the real world.

SNOOPY

[warthog]

These days with all the home security camera's around, I would think our van driver would be picked up by the plod very quickly. I think this is just a chain letter with no real basis behind it. While technically possible, It is hard to fathom how such a scam could ever work in the real world.
SNOOPY

Unless their face was obscured by something, but I can't think how they would manage that in a socially-acceptable way…

[peat]

Unless their face was obscured by something, but I can't think how they would manage that in a socially-acceptable way…

Covid mask?

[Snoopy]

I have been rung up a couple of times in the last fortnight by Asian women claiming to be working for Vodaphone ringing me on my landline (not with Vodaphone). The first time I ended up being offered a wireless broadband package for just $19 per month. This was after I got transferred from the first Asian woman to a second Asian woman (a suspicious move in itself I thought) once I showed some interest in taking the discussion further. The catch was "if I have a pay monthly mobile deal with Vodaphone as well". I actually do have a Vodaphone mobile, but I run it on an irregular pre-pay basis. If it was really Vodaphone ringing me I would have thought they might have known this? Then again I may have just gone into a shop and bought a SIM card one day and remained 'anonymous' (I think you can still do this, I can't quite remember). Or maybe they did know and were trying to sway me into a regular monthly deal? But if that were true and they knew my number was a Vodaphone mobile number (even if they didn't know my name), why didn't they ring me via my mobile phone if they wanted to 'up sell' me a deal? I have got 'up sell' genuine text message deals from Vodaphone before, via my mobile.

After turning down the first deal, I got rung again tonight, offering me full fibre broadband for just $55 per month, Again providing I had a monthly cellphone contract (which I did not want). This time they knew my name (I gave it to them the first time around) and that "I had expressed interest in signing up with Vodaphone", (after I had explicitly said two weeks ago that I wasn't interested). It all sounded a bit staged, and a bit too good to be true. But not so good that it was definitely a hoax

I know that Infratil own Vodaphone NZ. But do they have an Asian based call centre? I did wonder if this was a genuine campaign to try and boost revenue before a partial or total sell off of Vodaphone NZ, which I understand is being rebranded to 'One New Zealand' in the new year.

Anyone else had one of these calls from 'Vodaphone'?

SNOOPY