St. Albert RCMP have received two complaints about scammers since Nov. 28. In one case a senior was swindled out of $2,700.
On Nov. 28 a scammer posing as an Amazon employee reached out to a St. Albert senior and claimed that the senior’s Amazon account had a fraudulent charge. The scammer used this scheme to access the senior’s online banking information and steal $2,700.
On Dec. 6, RCMP received another complaint from a resident who had been contacted by a scammer claiming that the resident’s bank account would be locked due to a police investigation into a fraudulent iPhone purchase.
The scammers demanded that the resident buy $1,000 worth of Apple gift cards and share the numbers on the cards to avoid getting her bank account locked.
“If you are ever asked by someone in an email or on the phone to purchase prepaid gifts cards, no matter what it is for or who the individual say they are, do not do it,” St. Albert RCMP said in a press release.
The prepaid gift card scam is one of several reoccurring scams that are “circulating in the community,” the RCMP said.
“Often a scammer notifies an individual that one of their online accounts or credit cards has been compromised, may state the victim owes money to Revenue Canada or the fraudster may pose as a police officer, boss or someone in a high ranking title from a business,” they said. “In order to catch the criminal(s), pay your outstanding debt or assist the boss/business/company, the fraudster instructs the victim to purchase a certain amount of prepaid gift cards such as: Google Play, Xbox, Amazon [or] Apple.”
