Several reports of scams have once again filtered into the Winkler Police Service.
This past week, a woman reported that she responded to an ad on Instagram promising to make money working from home. She sent a large amount of money to a crypto currency brokerage and when she later requested the money that she had sent be released, the so-called brokerage asked her to send another more money. That's when she realized it was a scam.
A man also reported unauthorized transactions were made from his bank account.
As well, a woman fell victim to a gift card scam after receiving a phone call from someone claiming that her credit card was credited, and she was to use those funds to purchase a large amount of Lululemon gift cards. She proceeded to do so and provided the scammer with gift card information, along with her personal credit card information. She has since cancelled her credit card and blocked the scammer’s phone number.
Another woman, who had been communicating with a man on Facebook, threatened to post a video she sent him unless she purchased Apple gift cards and sent the information to him, which she did. Police advised the woman to cease conversation with the scammer, delete her account for the time being, and block the scammer’s account and phone number.