Two fall for gift card scam in Douglas County

Two Douglas County senior citizens have fallen prey to a scam involving the purchase of gift cards.

In one instance reported to the Douglas County Sheriff's Office (DCSO), a resident received a phone call from someone claiming to be Apple Computer who informed the victim their computer had been compromised. The caller ID also stated it was Apple Inc. so the resident felt it was legitimate. The scam caller claimed he would be working on the computer remotely. After the scam caller claimed it was repaired, he asked for a service plan to be purchased for future protection. The scam caller instructed to victim to purchase $400.00 in ITunes gift cards, which was done, and gift card numbers were given to the scam caller. The scam caller immediately redeemed the card with no services given.

In the second case, a Douglas County resident received a phone call from a scam caller claiming to be a grandson, and then later a call from a male who claimed to be the attorney for the grandson who was handling his arrest for DUI. The scam caller wanted gift cards for handling the incident and then her grandson would be released. The loss was $2500 in Walmart gift cards.

According to the FBI, senior citizens are targeted for several reasons. They are perceived to have a “nest egg” in cash, own their home, and have excellent credit. Seniors were raised in their generation to be polite and trusting. Con artists use these traits to exploit their victims. Older Americans are less likely to report that they have been scammed, due to a lack of knowledge of who to report it to, or simply embarrassment. Sometimes older Americans have memory problems and cannot remember important details to be an effective witness to assist law enforcement in finding the criminal.

On March 12, 2018 in Las Vegas, Glen Burke, 58, was sentenced to 87 months in prison and ordered to pay $2,785,508.36 for multi-million dollar prize promotion scams. He operated two predatory schemes that defrauded thousands of victims, many of whom were elderly, out of more than $20 million.

DCSO is reminding the public that phone scammers are working 24/7 trying to obtain your money. Never answer personal questions, never tell a stranger your bank information, social security information, or Medi-care numbers. It’s tax season so the scam callers are using “The IRS is calling.” These are all scams trying to obtain money. The public is encouraged to hang up on these calls.

"We also encourage those reading this information to reach out to family, friends and neighbors and share this information on these ruthless scammers preying on the population," said DCSO in a statement.