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Local Businesses Targeted By Gift Card Scam

BEND, OR -- Scammers bilked thousands from two Bend restaurants in the past week and police say more could be targeted. Staff at Bangers & Brews used a thousand dollars to purchase gift cards on December 28, believing they were helping to release the owner from U.S. Marshals custody. They sent another thousand from a personal account through a banking app. January fourth, a Shari’s employee fell for a similar con, using more than $3,000 from the till to buy gift cards to allegedly clear an IRS audit.

"These are sophisticated crimes," Bend PD's Sheila Miller tells KBND News. In both cases, the caller’s phone number was spoofed to look like the business owner or manager. It's a new twist on a well-known scam, "Being able to spoof the owner of the business or the regional manager’s phone number and having some of that information about the business, it is a little bit off-putting. So, all of these things kind of combine to make it a bit more of a sophisticated con."

Miller says these kinds of investigations are difficult because the scammers are often outside the country, "In the first case, the Bangers & Brews case, the scammer was able to get $1,000 from the employee’s personal bank account through an online app. We may be able to track that using the information they provided for that app. And then in the other one, they mailed these gift cards to an address. Perhaps we will be able to track that address."

It's easy to think you won't fall for the ruse. But Miller says, "When you’re in the moment and there’s someone being really forceful with you, who seems to know a lot about your business or your employees, and the phone call is coming from the phone number of your boss, you can get really scared."

Redmond Police report Cold Stone Creamery lost $317 in a similar incident on November 21. Lt. Jesse Petersen tells KBND News a caller told employees they were calling from a government agency and, "convinced the employee to take cash from the business to purchase Visa gift cards, which were transferred to the caller." The scammer tried again November 30 and December 30, at one point claiming they were from the "State Police Department" and threatened to arrest the employee if they didn't provide more money. Petersen says the business didn't lose any more than the initial $317.

If you get a similar call, hang up and call police, "Don’t provide any details," says Miller, "Certainly don’t go buy gift cards and send pictures of them or send them in the mail. That is absolutely a scam."

 

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