Scammed out of $10,000, a Guelph woman is sharing details of her “humiliating” experience in hopes of saving others from falling victim to a ploy she says “sounded on the up-and-up” while it was happening.
“I’m trying to make a better experience than my terrible one,” commented Betty, which is not her real name. “I don’t want this to happen to anybody else.”
GuelphToday has confirmed the following details of Betty’s story via the paper trail left behind and also confirmed a police report was been filed.
It started with a phone call on Dec. 20, which the 46-year-old described as a time when she was particularly exhausted due to a personal matter involving a family member and, in hindsight, she wasn’t thinking clearly.
Someone purporting to be from her bank called to check in on a couple of suspicious credit card purchases made at a local pharmacy she’s patronized in the past. After informing them she hadn’t bought anything there recently, they said her card was being put on hold while they looked into it.
As the conversation continued, Betty agreed to go to the same store and purchase four $500 gift cards to mimic the suspicious purchases to help the bank’s fraud unit investigate. She was told it would help identify the person responsible for using her card and prevent the same thing from happening to others.
After being informed her account had been pre-loaded with the funds to cover it – something she said she couldn’t…
