The IRS Gift Cards

in #scammers7 years ago (edited)

Today I wanted to tell a particular scam story, which I was reminded of by this scammers writing competition by @swissclive.

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A Call From a Victim

One night, my wife and I were with a group of friends, sitting at a restaurant enjoying a nice pizza. My wife got a call from a friend, and it sounded fairly serious. After the call, my wife told us that her friend, let's call her Sally, was nearly in tears. Sally recently got a call from the IRS, and was worried sick because they told her that she had misfiled her taxes. Being a non-permanent resident, Sally was also worried that she might lose her current status here. Continuing on, my wife described how Sally was feeling a bit better after being offered help for a sum of money, and that someone would be coming by to help correct the problem.

Uh oh...

The warning bells were ringing loudly in my head, and I immediately responded by saying that she just got scammed. My wife looked at me with uncertainty at first, asking how I knew. I said that the IRS does not call people like that, and that I read about such IRS scams before. I told her to immediately call her back and ask for details.

Sally also seemed uncertain. She was so focused on the possibility of losing her status or going to jail that she was not thinking clearly. This was when we found out the crazy details. The scammer had told her not to hang up the phone or else risk facing the penalty, and also gave specific instructions to purchase two Target gift cards worth 500$ each. Not only that, the gift cards must be purchased from two different Target stores. She used her debit card to make the purchases, and was frantically hailing a cab to get to a second store, all while on the phone with the scammer.

As she recounted this story, my heart sank. I also was screaming inside my head. This is terrible! And to think she must have been so on edge to not suspect a thing. This is exactly the psychological trigger that scammers prey on, and why the scams have been fairly successful. I could feel her playing this back in her head and starting to realize what just happened. Devastation...

We racked our heads for possible solutions. The immediate course of action at the time was a suggestion to file a police report and try to contact the card companies for a way to nullify the transaction possibly. She paid with debit card, and authorized it, so I wasn't so optimistic about those prospects. The police simply laughed her off: nothing they could do.

An Act of Hope

About two hours later, and I am cursing myself for not thinking of it sooner, I realized that she should try to nullify the gift cards, since she knows the gift card codes. Sally gave me the two codes over the phone, and I looked them up on the Target website. I entered the first code, and it showed that there were no funds left. Of course they would drain the funds as soon as possible. What a terrible scam. I entered the second code, and that's when I saw a balance of 500 dollars still on the card.

There's hope! My blood was already boiling with anger, but now there was a hopeful rush of adrenaline. I found the section where I could contact customer service. Thank goodness it was 24/7. I called on her behalf, and told the agent the situation, that Sally was tricked into buying the gift cards. The agent was able to cancel and refund one of the gift cards to the original debit card before it was drained by the scammer. Just like that, 500$ was recovered, and I was very happy that it worked.

I called Sally and told her the good news, and she was extremely grateful. Still very much shaken, but happy to cut the loss in half. I also suggested that perhaps she could call the debit card and tell them that the purchases were not made on her behalf, but we were not sure if that would work or not. She didn't want to risk doing so, so that was it.

The Scam

This is the kind of scam you hear on the news and wonder how people would ever fall for it. But it's unfortunately something many people fall victim to, and it was quite disheartening to see this happen to someone who was hit quite hard by it financially. Summarizing what happened, this particular variant of the scam worked as follows:

  1. Scammer calls victim and claims that their tax was filed incorrectly, and that the penalty is severe, possibly involving jail time.
  2. They offer to help for a fee of 1000$, and that a representative will come by to guide them through the process.
  3. They request the victim to buy two gift cards of 500$ each and tell them the redemption codes over the phone.

All the while, they keep up the panic of the victim and keep them on the phone as much as possible to complete the task.

This was certainly very obvious in hind sight, and that really just makes it feel much worse. You might be wondering why the victim needs to buy two different gift cards of 500$ each, and I looked it up later. It seems that the limitation is set by the store and is exactly for preventing this kind of scam. And now I wonder what the cashier who rang this charge up thought, or if anyone else was in the line... Fantasizing about whether it could have been stopped while in progress. Not in this city, New York, where people mind their own business.

This whole thing also reminds me of a particular Japanese manga called Liar's Game which at one point explains how phone scams work psychologically. It's a really brilliant story about a very innocent, trusting young woman, ensared in a sinister game of deception, and is helped by a genius swindler to turn the game around.

But anyway, hope more people can be aware of such scams. Just remember, the IRS doesn't call you by phone, and they certainly don't want gift cards.


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This was a well written and interesting story. I have heard about the IRS scammers getting people like this with the gift card purchases - or iTunes vouchers. Not sure how the scammers get goods when the card is not in their possession.

If any tax authority asked me to pay by gift card, I would find it completely implausible. But hey, we were all born knowing nothing and believing in santa clause and the easter bunny.

Thanks!

It is a little weird... now that I'm jogging my memory, it's possible the gift cards get resold on other websites at a discount. Though likely they need to transfer the code and buy another gift card first with it to make sure they aren't cancelled before that.

Yeah, about finding it implausible, that was exactly my line of thinking as well. Definitely the fear screwing with the rational brain. A person with a gun to my head and I'll believe in Santa Clause again :)

I remember watching this one video in Youtube of the IRS scam and how the guy made a program to constantly call the number he got and with a prerecorded message call them scammers and scum of the earth effectively tying up their lines.

The man on the other line was absolutely furious haha.

These scams are often run in Asia and targetting US citizens and is particularly sad when the victims are the older people.

Man its good that you got the refunds for the 2nd card.

Oh yeah, I think I've seen one of those, it's pretty funny. And the scammer gets what he deserves. Though I also imagine that the scammer is just a pawn and the real person pulling the strings is unaffected, which is also frustrating.

I was so happy to be able to recover that second one.

I've heard these scams before and, you're right, when you're reading or hearing about it you think there's no way I could fall for that. But, in the moment, when someone has manipulated you psychologically with fear, it's hard to know. Way to fight for your friend!

It reminds me of time when I placed a long lost friend notice in a local South African magazine's 'searching for' column. I received a call from someone claiming to be a policeman, saying my friend was arrested for fraud and wanted to speak to me. Knowing her as the most honest person ever, I still panicked as this guy was so convincing, I thought perhaps she'd fallen on hard times, all kinds of scenarios played in my mind. But when the caller said I could not speak to her then, but had to call back after buying her a cellphone airtime voucher (for quite a large sum), alarm bells started ringing.
My husband called the number back and gave this guy his piece of mind!
The magazine published a warning in a later edition, some people actually fell for this scammer, bought the voucher and gave him the
voucher code!
Hope more people read your post and heed the warning, I will resteem.

Good that you kept your guard up for that. All the scammer needs is a couple of people to fall for it and they're satisfied. Thanks for sharing the word!

My parents went through the same thing. But instead of Target gift cards, it was gift cards for steampowered.com, a gaming site. My mom had no idea. She lost a lot of money but did not lost all of it. She was so scared that even yelling to her that it was a scam, the people on the phone were yelling back at her to not hang up and to keep giving them the numbers.
What a place to be. I don't understand how they put the fear in people. As soon as they say that you owe money, or even pay in gift cards... That is now how any business company deals with people. Nonetheless it is a horrible thing to do to people. And for that police officer.... what a dink for laughing it off. There is something to do for sure!

Woah, she was being told at the time by others that it was a scam wihle the other people were able to get her to continue going? That's crazy, that fear.... So maybe even if that store clerk tried to tell her, it may have ended similarly....

Fear is fear. Something else to think about, is it the scammers putting fear into the people or is it the government?

What a story Eon.. I was reading it and my hands start to sweat all over because I was filling all over again.. my mother was scammed once.. it was terrible.. she was alone in her house and idk what the scammers told her.. she can't remember.. idk if she was hipnotized or what.. the thing I know is that she gave out all her jewelery... It was very sad.. I'm glad to know you've made it around at least half of it.. I'm happy for your and for your girlfriends friend.. cheers ;)

Oh no.... What disgusting scammers... We should be on our guard on Steemit as well, I'm sure there are many creative attempts to do the same here.

I wish this was an American problem that I could only read about. But, sadly, this seems to be a universal problem and every new technology brings new opportunities for scammers. I hear stories like this every month... Sometimes it feels that I should distrust every single person I with I come into contact. Every bit of good news should be investigated. It is a sad reality!

The sense of urgency, the possible loss, and scaring the victim to death are just a few of those things that the scammer did to get what he wants. I've heard about these sorts scams and have been done in different methods.

There are also scams that happen even in person. When the victim is asked why she agreed, she can't even explain why and feels so lost how it happened.

Good thing you were able to get into action Evan or else Sally might've lost everything. ^^

Poor 'Sally'. It's good that you got her the $500 back though. It sounds nightmarish, being held on the phone while you hot-foot it over town to buy gift cards. Crazy stuff. It's especially cruel how they target people (possibly by name) to maximise the chances that person's not from the USA and is likely unaware of how things work. Nasty stuff.

I know it's a painful and real subject but I wanna mention the writing too. I really enjoyed how you built the tension in 'The Act of Hope'. I really wanted to find out what happened so bad.

cheers and thanks for sharing this. Hopefully it'll help someone from being their next victim.
Anj xx

Yeah, I suspect that was part of it as well, about targeting foreigners. This 'Sally' really thought that someone was going to come to her home afterwards, but that thought was killed as soon as we convinced her it was a scam.

Thank you about the writing. I actually started the post in a more informational fashion until I decided I wanted to make it story mode. I do hope people are aware of such scams so they don't get caught off guard.

Heartbreaking innit. Bastards!

Writing: yeah it's working goooood :)

cheers
Anj x

It's terrible that people have to fear these kinds of scams, and so sad she lost her money, but it's good you were there to at least get half of it back and lessen the damage. I've heard of these types of scams before and always wondered how they could get people to fall for them and now I know at least one tactic is fear. It's just a shame that there are people out there willing to prey on other humans vulnerabilities.

Yeah, fear can make your mind go nuts. I've definitely been a victim of such manipulation before, though the consequences there were much milder.

My wife immigrated about a decade ago and I remember her getting crazy scared over the smallest things - worrying they wouldn't approve her citizenship and such.

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