Masood Rabiei
News Writer
Howard County victims lost over $50,000 to gift card scams in the first half of November. Police has released a video about how the scams work, hoping it will prevent them. The scammers often claim they are from the IRS, or are computer technicians and need money to fix the victim’s computer. Other scammers claim a family member is in an emergency situation and requests money. Regardless of what their story is, it simply involves asking the purchaser to go to a store and purchase gift cards. Then the purchaser would put money on the cards and provide the card number and the PIN to the scammer. Shoppers should inspect the gift cards to make sure none of its stickers were removed.
