Tehama County District Attorney Matt Rogers is cautioning the public of ongoing financial scams occurring by phone or email.
The “gift card scam” is targeting people all over Northern California. The scenario for this scam begins with an email or phone call purportedly from a company such as Microsoft or Amazon telling the scam’s target their credit card or banking have been compromised with thousands of dollars of fraudulent charges, Rogers explained.
“This scam is quite elaborate and the scammers very convincing,” he said.
The scam emails appear legitimate and have correct titles and graphics for the mimicked company, but do not have an email address corresponding to the company.
As the scam progresses, either through email or by phone, the scam directs the target to call a phone number or to speak to customer service in order to address the unauthorized charges. Responding to the phone call are scammers posing as company employees who then informs the target their credit card cannot be canceled and the only way to get reimbursement for the “fraudulent charges” is for the target to purchase legitimate gift cards. The target is then told to give the scammer the numbers on the purchased gift cards and they will then receive their money back.
Scammers are generally attempting to obtain at least $3,000 worth of gift cards…
