A Schuylkill County woman is the latest to fall victim to a gift card scam.
State Police-Schuylkill Haven say they recently got a report from a 72-year-old Pitman woman who got a phone call indicating she’d won the Publishers Clearing House sweepstakes.
The person on the other end of the line told the woman that she’d have to pay taxes on her winnings. They said in order to pay for these taxes, she would have to purchase $4,500 in gift cards.
In a gift card scam like this, a mark like the Pitman woman in this case, is convinced to purchase gift cards to make a payment. After purchasing the gift cards, they’re then instructed to relay the verification codes on the backs of gift cards. This gives scammers access to the money on the cards.
Often before a victim has time to realize they’d been scammed, the money they just spent is lost and largely untraceable.
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