First, the husband paid money out to a telephone caller claiming to be from a fraud protection group which “knew” the husband’s computer had been compromised, Darien police said. The man paid money to have his bank account made secure, police said.
Two days later, police said, a caller played the same scam on the Darien man’s wife, who also fell for it.
Payment with gift cards is a classic way scammers use to get money that’s largely untraceable. Anti-fraud authorities say you should never pay strangers this way.
A request to pay a stranger with a gift card is a huge tip-off that the stranger is trying to make a victim out of you. As the Federal Trade Commission website states, “Anyone who demands payment by gift card is always a scammer.”
Police gave these additional details about the incidents:
The first call came on Tuesday, Feb. 23. The man made the payment and didn’t think anything more about it until his wife mentioned that she’d also paid out money. That’s when the first victim realized he must have been had.
The wife, also told a bank account was compromised, had been instructed to buy four gift cards from a retailer and call back with the information on the cards. She did all that.