RED BLUFF — The Tehama County District Attorney’s Office warned the public Thursday of multiple ongoing financial scams happening through the phone and emails.
Gift card scam
The gift card scam is ongoing and targeting people all over Northern California, according to a press release issued by the office Thursday. It generally begins with an email or phone call purportedly from a company such as Microsoft or Amazon and tells the target of the scam their credit card or banking information has been compromised with thousands of dollars in fraudulent charges.
As the scam progresses, whether originating by email or phone call, the scam directs the target to call a phone number or speak to customer service to address the unauthorized charges. The phone numbers are all manned by scammers who continue the scam by posing as an employee of the company being mimicked, often referring the target to other scammers posing as employees of credit cards or banks.
At some point, the scammer informs the target their credit card cannot be canceled and the only way to get reimbursed for the fraudulent charges is for the target to purchase gift cards, the release said. The scammer says once the gift cards are purchased, and the card numbers turned over to the scammer, the target will receive their money back from the fraudulent charges. Scammers generally attempt to obtain at least $3,000 from the victims.
If successful, the scammer receives the gift card numbers and PIN numbers and the…
