Scammers target elderly woman

Carol Sutherland, of Maidstone Countdown in Upper Hutt, helped prevent an elderly woman from been scammed through buying iTunes cards. Photo: ROSS GIBLIN/STUFF

An elderly woman was shaking and looking as if she was about to burst into tears when she asked supermarket staff for iTunes vouchers.

The staff knew something was wrong.

A checkout operator at Maidstone Countdown in Upper Hutt asked customer services manager Carol Sutherland to grab some more $100 vouchers, because the woman wanted five of them.

"I went down to the stand and on the way back, I thought, 'This isn't right'," says Carol.

"I pulled her aside and said, 'Are these for you? Or have you been asked by someone to get them?' "

At first, the woman said they were for her grandsons, but she looked distressed and was shaking.

Sutherland pressed the woman further and found out she had been called by scammers, who knew where she lived, her name, and what kind of car she drove.

She had already been to Pak 'n Save and bought $300 of vouchers to give to the scammers.

Countdown staff took the woman to the police station, and an officer took her home.

Store manager Gaye Grossett says Countdown had been aware for a while of the iTunes voucher scam.
"We encourage our team to be aware when customers are buying large amounts of iTunes, and to try and ask questions to gauge if they are part of a scam.

"I am incredibly proud of my team for having the foresight to realise that the customer was in distress and needed our help.

"We were able to stop the customer from purchasing the cards and get assistance from the police."

A police spokeswoman says the victim was rattled by the experience.

"[We] would like to thank the supermarket staff who realised that something was not right, and supported the victim in reporting it to the police. They did exactly the right thing."

An 81-year-old Hutt Valley woman was tricked into spending thousands on iTunes gift cards in January. Scammers swindled about $5200 from her.

A post on the Apple support website says a string of scams have been taking place in which people are asked to make payments over the phone for things such as taxes, hospital bills, bail money, debt collection and utility bills.

Victims typically receive a call "instilling panic and urgency" to make a payment by buying iTunes cards from nearby shops. They are then asked to pay the scammers by sharing the code on the voucher.

Police urged people to ensure they had the verified identity and legitimacy of anyone they were paying money to. If not, they should hang up immediately.

"Look after your personal details in the same way you would your wallet and other possessions.

"Your personal details are also very valuable to scammers. They will use your details to take out loans or run up debts if they can."

Banks, Immigration New Zealand, Inland Revenue or other government departments never emailed, called or texted customers to ask for money to be sent using money transfer services or vouchers.

"If you receive a request of this nature, it's a scam."

- Stuff/AMBER-LEIGH WOOLF AND ELEANOR WENMAN

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2 comments

iTunes scam

Posted on 05-04-2018 11:10 | By LyricalSoul

This is disgusting! Lord I pray justice will be done in favour for this lady in Jesus mighty name I pray!


Jesus won’t help

Posted on 05-04-2018 15:07 | By NZer

NOr will the lord so you are wasting your time there.. they both let it happen. It was only the supermarket staff that stopped this from happening, maybe lyricalSoul you should start worshipping them.


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