Point Pleasant Boro Police Warn About Gift Card Scam

Point Pleasant Boro police are warning people about a gift card scam.

Police say one scam that tends to resurface involves phone calls where a scammer pretends to be a law enforcement officer or investigator who claims they have your family member under arrest, and you need to send bail money.

Many past scams utilized Western Union to facilitate the transfer of money, police said., However, Western Union has made these type of fraudulent transfers more difficult so the scammers are now requesting payment in the form of gift cards.

The scammer would instruct the victim to proceed to a store such as a Walmart, CVS, Walgreens etc. and purchase gift cards. The scammer would then call back and request the victim to provide the gift card number from the card, police said.

The scammer then uses that information you provided to deplete the money on the cards. The scammer gets the money and your family member was never under arrest or in any type of trouble.

A past victim who was scammed into thinking her grandson was under arrest sent money via gift cards. The victim began to feel that something was wrong. The victim called the grandson only to find out he was fine and at home watching television.

Most family information is available to the public via the Internet, so scammers use this information to deceive you into thinking they actually have one of your family members.

There are also variations of this type of scam with the use of gift cards to make payment for some type of service.

Please communicate this information to your family and loved ones. Public awareness is the best way to combat these criminals. Many times the scammer that you are communicating with are calling from another Country.

If you feel you are the victim of a scam, contact the Point Pleasant Police Department at 732-892-0060 or your local police department.

Point Boro police photo