Friday, July 23, 2010

Credit Card Refund? Yea..nuuhhh!

I regularly post warnings about scams doing the rounds.
The most current one involves people being phoned and told they're due a refund for excess charges on their credit card...but they have to pay money in order to receive the payment.
The NZ Commerce Commission has received several reports recently. The story used is slightly different each time, but similar enough to indicate they're from the same group of scammers. In each case, people are told they're eligible for a $3,000 refund: in one case the complainant was told it was on behalf of the Commerce Commission, in another case the scammer said they were from the New Zealand Banking Association.
In each case, complainants were asked to pay from $100 to $300 in order to receive the $3,000 payment. It's an unsophisticated simple ruse: the key element is that you're being asked to pay money in order to receive a refund.
That's the purpose of the scam, and it should ring a very loud warning bell. [Click here for more scam examples...]

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