NEW CREDIT CARD SCAM:FLOWER DELIVERY

LOT OF US KNOW THERE ARE MANY SCAMS ABOUT BUT 
THIS IS GETTING VERY CLEVER

It works like this: 
Wednesday a week ago, I had a phone call from someone who said that he 
was from some outfit called "Express Couriers" asking if I was going 
to be home because there was a package for me, and the caller said 
that the delivery would arrive at my home in roughly an hour. And sure 
enough, about an hour later, a delivery man turned up with a beautiful 
basket of flowers and wine.

I was very surprised since it did not involve any special occasion or holiday, and I 
certainly didn't expect anything like it. Intrigued about who would 
send me such a gift, I inquired as to who the sender is.

The deliveryman' s reply was, he was only delivering the gift package, but allegedly a 
card was being sent separately; (the card has never arrived!).


There was also a consignment note with the gift.

He then went on to 
explain that because the gift contained alcohol, there was a $3.50 
"delivery charge" as proof that he had actually delivered the package 
to an adult, And not just left it on the doorstep to just be stolen or 
taken by anyone.

This sounded logical 
and I offered to pay him cash He then said that the company required 
the payment to be by credit or debit card only so that everything is 
properly accounted for.

My husband, who, by 
this time, was standing beside me, pulled out of his wallet his 
credit/debit card, and 'John', the "delivery man", asked my husband to 
swipe the card on the small mobile card machine which had a small 
screen and keypad where Frank was also asked to enter the card's PIN 
and security number.

A receipt was 
printed out and given to us.

To our surprise, between Thursday and the following Monday, $4,000 had been 
charged/withdrawn from our credit/debit account at various ATM 
machines, particularly in the north shore area!


It appears that somehow the "mobile credit card machine" which the deliveryman carried 
was able to duplicate and create a "dummy" card(?) with all our card 
details, after my husband swiped our card and entered the requested 
PIN and security number. 

Upon finding out the illegal transactions on our card, of course, we immediately notified 
the bank which issued us the card, and our credit/debit account had 
been closed.

We also personally went to the Police, where it was confirmed that it is definitely a 
scam because several households have been similarly hit.


WARNING: Be wary of accepting any "surprise gift or package", which you neither expected nor personally ordered, especially if it involves any kind of payment as a condition of receiving the gift or package.

Also, never accept anything if you do not personally know and/or there is no proper 
identification of who the sender is.

Above all, the only time you should give out any personal 
credit/debit card information is when you yourself initiated the 
purchase or transaction