His name is Rob and he was on Ebay, looking for a holiday deal. He found a tractor that he wanted to buy and when he reached out to the seller they requested the money in Ebay gift cards.
“I bought five $200 Ebay gift cards, which then the seller told me to send them the redemption codes and pin number,” Smith says. “I knew I was scammed when after I sent them the numbers, they then asked me for $600 more.”
Smith reached out to Ebay, but was out of luck because he did not go through their payment channels such as PayPal.
Caddo-Shreveport Financial Crimes investigators says they are seeing a rise in these kinds of scams. Anyone can be a target to a scam, but investigators say they really try to rob elderly people.
One of the specific types of these scams called the “Grandma Scam”, which targets the elderly.
“A scammer will call the victim and say they are in trouble and need money, the victim will think it is their relative and the scammer will use the name they mention as themselves,” Sgt. Casey Jones says. “They then will tell them to get gift cards to send to them for money.”
Sgt. Jones is encouraging everyone to use legitimate payment services and research companies before you buy something online. He stressed, if it sounds too good to be true, then it is.