BE ON THE ALERT, THE HOLIDAY SEASON IS COMING

Just when you think you've heard it all. Here comes
another scam. This scam is very clever. Be very
careful out there! One could easily fall for this -
beware of people bearing gifts!

There is a new and clever credit card scam.
Please circulate this.

Someone it happened to says 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 uniformed 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 delivery man'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 where it could 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 his wallet out of his pocket with the
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 horrible surprise, between Thursday and
the following Monday, $4,000 had been
charged/withdrawn from our credit/debit account
at various ATM machines.

It appeared that somehow the "mobile credit
card machine" which the delivery man carried
now had all the info necessary to 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 about the illegal transactions
on our card, we immediately notified the bank
which issued us the card, and our credit/debit
account was closed.

We also personally went to the Police, where
it was confirmed that it is definitely a scam
because several households had 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 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!

If you pass this on, it may just prevent someone
else from being swindled!