Latest scam seeks delivery fees
Last Modified: Monday, August 20, 2012 11:00 AM
If you get a call saying you won a prize but have to purchase a “Green Dot card” to help pay for delivery fees, don’t buy it. It’s one of many scams out there making the rounds, said Carmen Million, director of the local Better Business Bureau.
“We get these calls (about this scam) every day,” Million said in an email.
Million said the call comes from a person with a foreign accent — usually from the area code “876” in Jamaica — who says the resident has won money, a car or another big prize.
The caller then says the resident would need to purchase a “Green Dot card” “to pay for fees” so the prize can be delivered, Million said.
“When the consumer purchases the card, the caller calls them back and gives them a number on the card. The scammer removes the money off of the card,” Million said. “Sometimes they call back stating that law enforcement will not let them cross the state line into Louisiana, so they need additional funds to send the prize. It can — and will — continue until the consumer stops giving money,” she said.
Million said lotteries and sweepstakes from outside the United States are illegal.
“You are not eligible to win. The only way to stop these scams is if people quit getting involved,” she said. “If it sounds too good to be true, it is.”
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