Gift Card Scam Makes La Grange Woman $3,200 Poorer: Report

La Grange IL

01 March, 2021

11:26 AM

Description

LA GRANGE, IL — Scammers often present problems that can be solved through the purchase of gift cards. If you get such a call, here's some advice: Hang up. This applies no matter how convincing the caller sounds. Last month, an 80-year-old La Grange woman complied with a scammer's request to purchase gift cards. And she is $3,200 poorer because of it, police said. Through a public records request, Patch obtained the police report on the local gift card scam. On Feb. 17, a female caller told the woman that her Social Security number had been compromised. The caller then put the woman on hold for an "investigator" named Sylvestor Brown. He gave his supposed badge number. According to police, the man posing as the investigator said a car found in Texas contained 20 pounds of cocaine and that this seizure compromised the woman's Social Security number. The man said the woman needed to pay the investigator with various gift cards so that she could get a new number, police said. The man promised to meet with the woman the next day at the Social Security office. The La Grange woman then left her house and went to various stores, including Walgreens, Best Buy, Target and Walmart, and bought thousands in gift cards, the report said. After each stop, the woman called the so-called investigator and gave him the gift card numbers, police said. The man told the woman she should not tell anyone about the gift cards. After she got home from her last stop, Walmart, she was starting to believe she may have been the victim of a scam. She contacted her daughter to tell her what happened. She returned to the Walmart in Hodgkins, where she got $2,500 in gift cards, and found nothing had been spent. Walmart reimbursed her the cash. All the other gift cards — $3,200 in all — had zero balances. A La Grange officer called one of the numbers associated with the suspects. A man who called himself "Officer Kevin Williams" with the Social Security office answered, police said. When the police officer identified herself and requested Kevin's legal name and date of birth, he then "proposed to" the officer and hung up. The case was closed, listed as having "low solvability."