Thief Employs Sophisticated Scam Against Lakewood Resident

Thieves have apparently begun using a new, sophisticated scam to get your hard-earned money into their pockets.

A Lakewood resident told TLS that one of his employees began receiving messages from what seemed to be his email address requesting that he go to Walmart and buy a bunch of gift cards. The emails said he should then scratch off the back of the card to reveal the gift card code, snap a picture of it, and email it back to the email address.

The employee went to Walmart and began selecting the cards that he was told to buy.

Luckily for him and his employer, he called his boss to inquire about the gift cards and why he was making such a strange request. His employer was of course completely bewildered, having no knowledge of any such emails originating from his account.

The conversation with the scammer ended when the employee emailed him “can you talk for a min?”

While this story had a happy ending, it is vital that everyone take these scams seriously. They can be difficult to spot and thieves are becoming ever-more sophisticated in their schemes. If something seems odd or plain off, it is worth looking into it.








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12 COMMENTS

  1. Look at the very first email. “Kindly reply my email” that would have been a red flag right away. This has happened on the past. Companies should have a policy that before checks are written or money changing hands, it should be over the phone

  2. When the employee emailed the scammer and asked him, “Can you talk for a minute?”, the scammer reportedly replied, “You know what, SCRATCH THAT.”

  3. Unbelievable. I can see very easily, how someone can get scammed. Once they get your bosses email, and they can send messages to his contacts, forget it.
    They can ask for wires and gift cards and everything.

  4. no offense to the publisher but this is a very old scam. never ever do this. make a phone call if it is an email that you know. its a common practice to hide the emails in a folder and they use a rule to move the messages so the user never sees the scam. just use common sense.

  5. Simple life rule-when ever asked for money,to spend money,private info,credit card info,and anything alike related to an expense or confidential information ALWAYS CONFIRM never do such activities just via email text or scam call ALWAYS confirm ask for names and alike be sure its not suspicious.

  6. How do the scammers make money on this kind of a thing?
    It’s quite obvious from the emails that it wasn’t real and the employee should have realized right away but still how does money get into the hands of the scammers from this they didn’t ask him to wire any money? Or are they just trying to make the guy waste money?

    • First off, a lot of people do fall for this unfortunately, even with the spelling mistakes.
      Second, they have you email them pictures of the gift cards and they spend them online. Unlike a credit card, you can’t dispute a transaction.
      Thank God this person realized before it was too late.

  7. @Izzy
    There are a few layers to this scam, but the short answer is that the scam artist gets access to the gift card when the victim scratches off the numbers on the gift card and sends the pic to the scammers

  8. Izzy scanner get gift cards. Simple.

    To Me Jackson resident, if it’s a folder no to been seen what’s the point, how you gonna scam someone if he can’t see email. Huh

  9. New, sophisticated scam? No sir, it’s just another variation on the tried and trued scam phone call/email from the FBI, IRS, police, or Microsoft that you (or a loved one) are in legal trouble unless you purchase gift cards and tell the other party the gift card codes.

  10. There’s another scam being used now. You get a call fro Apple Services from a 1800 number. It’s usually an Indian person saying there’s been a breach in your cloud/Apple account etc etc. HANG UP ON THEM – IT IS 100% A SCAM.
    I spoke to Apple this morning and they said Apple will never call you unless you initiate contact with them first and are expecting a call back.

Comments are closed.