Victim Location 78633
Total money lost $4.95
Type of a scam Sweepstakes/Lottery/Prizes
Received a phone call offering a $100 Walmart Gift Card for the cost of mailing $4.95 for shipping. Sounded good so I stupidly gave them my credit card information. The next day the $4.95 showed up on my credit card account under the name of Safe Auto transaction # 8007372619. I tried to contact Smart Shoppers by email; not listed, phone # they gave – 13275 or 287-720-4920. I sent an email to Safe Auto requesting information. No reply as yet. Need to catch these scamsters.
Victim Location 43081
Type of a scam Sweepstakes/Lottery/Prizes
A gentleman has been contacting me for the last several months requesting that I send $4.95 through my credit card in order to receive a check for $100.00. He was very specific in stating that it was an unclaimed reward from Walmart and Target.
I said I do not use my credit card and have been home bound for the past five years as a result of an auto accident (although I did not mention being home bound to the caller). He then stated you sound like an old woman and I asked, what do you consider old, and the gentleman stated 80 or 90 years old.
I also receive a notice in the mail which prompted me to call BBB. I have received a notification in the mail today with Claim No. 038944231 and offering a reward of $100.00 at Walmart or Target. Notification stated to call 844 851 0797 to supply my credit card information. At this time I do not wish to receive any more calls. The caller did not give me the name of the person who sent the card; however, the name on card I received is J. Rogers.
Victim Location 60654
Type of a scam Fake Check/Money Order
I called this number thinking it was my hospital bill’s number, but I miss typed the number. The call said they were having problems with the phone system and I was being transferred to the promotional department to be given a gift card to Walmart for my inconvenience. I thought it was weird that a hospital would have a promo department, but I have worked in advertising before, and we had hospitals as clients so I thought a hospital could have a marketing department of some sort.
I asked the person to verify the company I was calling multiple times, which he complied. But, now that I think of it, I think I asked him "is this so and so company" and he’s like yes, this is their promo department and relayed the information I was already told. He then asked me for my credit card information to active the gift card. I should have went with my gut and hung up. I asked him why he needed money from me if I was being given a gift card because of my bad experience calling their phone lines. He assured me it was to just activate the gift card. Which seemed weird to me, but I have had to pay an activation fee on gift cards before. So he ended up getting the info out of me after I repeatedly asked him a bunch of questions to verify that this was the legit company I intended to call.
He told me I would not be charged until my card arrived, but then later told me it had already been charged. He then told me I would be signed up for a trial of something or another and that’s when I lost it and figured out this was a scam. I told them to cancel everything and I wanted no part in it, but he said they could not do that. The guy eveb asked how old I was too, which I thought was so weird; I told him it was none of his business. They do have my mailing address though, so that worries me. The guy transferred me to some "manager" telling me the same BS. They both had an Indian accent I think. I don’t remember the guy’s name but he gave me some bogus employee ID code #00920 and a number to reach him at 287-363-8844.
I was so confused because I thought I was talking to a legit company I called to make a hospital payment on. He did tell me the charge would be from Smart Shoppers, which I figured was the gift card company they were going through, but it was the scammers.
Go with your gut if something like this happens, triple check the number you called. I ended up calling my credit card company immediately after (they hadn’t charged my credit card yet) and cancelling my card so they couldn’t make any charges to it.