A novel credit card fraud scheme can drain you of hundreds of dollars, and your bank’s fraud division may never flag the dubious transactions unless you take action.
An Ohio woman recently fell prey to this con. Her husband, identified only as D.H. from Pepper Pike, Ohio, recounted their experience to Cleveland.com. Their situation illustrates how far fraudsters will go to pilfer your funds and, in doing so, make it more difficult for you to reclaim your money.
How the credit card con unfolded
The crook obtained her card details and used them to purchase a Lenovo Ideapad from Best Buy for $572.39. Fortunately, the couple had enrolled in email notifications with their bank and noticed the charge right away, even though it hadn’t triggered any fraud warnings.
They phoned PNC Bank, disputed the charge and cancelled the card immediately. But several days later, UPS delivered the Ideapad to their home.
As Cleveland.com explains, that’s part of the ploy. The scammers ship the expensive item to the cardholder’s address to avoid raising suspicion.
“This transaction was not flagged as suspicious by PNC,” the Cleveland.com piece noted. “That’s not a knock on PNC. It was a $600 computer being sent to the card holder’s home. People buy computers.”
In fact, sending the laptop to the victim’s house likely helped PNC and Best Buy overlook anything unusual.
The scammer counts on victims not noticing the fraudulent charge until the laptop arrives. Then the scammer bets the victims become so focused on getting the charge removed and returning the laptop that they miss what happens next.
The day after the Ideapad showed up, the scammer apparently submitted a return through FedEx. The snag was the FedEx return label didn’t point to a Best Buy store. It listed an address in Philadelphia.
Cleveland.com reports the scammer expects the distracted customer won’t catch the address and will send the stolen laptop right to them.
In this already intricate scheme, there’s a reason the fraudsters aren’t worried about their addresses appearing on return labels — they’re not mailing the merchandise to themselves.
Rather, the scammers recruit intermediaries to intercept the goods, then forward them to the real thief. They enlist these middlemen by advertising seemingly legitimate work-from-home opportunities and convincing unsuspecting people to ship the pilfered items along.
The Ohio couple, luckily for them, didn’t fall for that element of the scam either. By the time the FedEx worker arrived at their door, they had already taken the laptop back to a nearby Best Buy.
Although the fraudsters didn’t manage to grab this laptop, they lost nothing because they used the victim’s money for the purchase.
What to do if this happens to you
Even though this Ohio pair handled things correctly, they still struggled to explain the scheme to skeptical Best Buy staff.
To protect yourself, enroll in free transaction alerts from your bank or card issuer so you’re notified promptly when a large purchase posts.
If an item you didn’t order shows up at your door, don’t use any shipping service to return it. Instead, take it back to the store in person and describe the situation.
If visiting the store isn’t feasible, contact the retailer’s customer service line to report the issue. Insist on obtaining a case number for documentation and verify the return label’s address before sending anything out.
If you accidentally return the merchandise to the scammer rather than the retailer, you might ultimately be responsible for the cost, even if your bank initially provided a refund.
Of course, cardholders aren’t the only ones harmed: the so-called work-from-home middlemen also end up cheated.
If you want to earn money remotely without getting entangled in criminal operations, learn how to spot legitimate remote jobs and partner with reputable employers.
Your turn: honestly, have you come across a scam with more steps than this? Share your story.
Desiree Stennett (@desi_stennett) was a staff writer at Savinly. She believes if these fraudsters are willing to put in THIS much effort, they should simply get lawful employment.
