iTunes Gift Card over The Phone Scam - My Friend Purchased $2800

DEvok on 18/11/2018 - 00:38
Last edited 18/11/2018 - 09:50 by 1 other user

Yesterday my friend gave me a call asking me to help him out to solve an issue with $2800 worth of iTunes gift cards scam over the phone, he has reported it to the police and told it has been going on for sometime and many many people even from Ozbargain probably been scammed as well..as we are ppl so forth.

The scenario was that my colleague from work received a phone call in the afternoon that he had to pay a fine of some sort, pardon me I’m not to sure exactly what happened. And was transfered to the police and some weird reason he had to use cash to buy iTunes cards, I think abit obvious that paying with iTunes cards for a fine doesn’t make any sense.

But anyway I went to appl support and asked they said they can not do much as iTunes cards have been used and they can’t revserse the cards unless probably they where purchased directly off apples website. Those cards where bought From Coles and Woolworths.

As it was paid with cash I highly doubt any sort of refund will be honoured maybe with a credit card. Apple support also emailed me this.

“I recommend having your friend reach out to the store where the cards were purchased from to request a refund. You may also be able to inquire with the corporate head office of the store where they were purchased”

Sorry for my poor typing but what do you guys think?

General Discussion

Comments

  • Nutrino on 18/11/2018 - 00:52
    +3

    So the scammers transferred your friend's phone call to the fake police. Ic.

    • D C on 18/11/2018 - 17:20
      +1

      Landline.

      It's very simple.

      You're the scammer, you call the sucker. You tell the sucker to hang up and call the police to confirm.

      Don't hang up your phone, this keeps the call open. Play a dial tone. Sucker picks up the phone (stop playing the dial tone) and dials 'the police'. Play the sound of a phone ringing for a few seconds.

      Now you 'pick up' the phone and answer "Hello, this is your friendly policeman. We're been waiting for your call, apparently you've been very naughty…."

      UC?

      • HighAndDry on 19/11/2018 - 09:49

        I don't think it was even that complicated.

        And was transfered to the police

        Seems like the scammer just said, "Hold please, we'll put you through to the police", put OP on hold, played some hold music, and then handed the phone to scammer's buddy.

        • D C on 19/11/2018 - 19:39

          Yeah maybe.

          If the sucker are going to fall for it anyway why add extra work for yourself.

  • trustnoone on 18/11/2018 - 01:28
    +3

    This is a super common scam, I've read about it many times I didn't know they would still use it. Sometimes its like "ATO" or someone that you're told you're pay for. Anyway, the scammers know what they're doing, they chose gift cards because once the transaction has gone through they can't reverse the purchased item easily, I assume they later sell the cards at a low price to make back the cash.

    Not sure if any of this works, might be best to report to the police (which sounds like you've already done), then with a copy of the report you can go to the store or head office to try to at least get them to cancel the cards, this might be easier now that you have a police report. You can then try with the police report to possibly help you get a refund, no idea if it works and I don't think you're entitled to one but thats all I can really think of.

    If you paid with card, you might have been able to hit up a bank with the police report for another chance, but seems in this case if its cash I don't think much can happen besides teaching your friend a pretty important lesson about itunes gift cards not being a valid currency for any fine in any country in the world.

  • jlogic on 18/11/2018 - 02:20
    +2

    I was denied the opportunity to be threatened when I continued a call from a scammer. They transferred me through and asked me a few questions and then hung up on me. They are wisening up on the time wasters.

    • 87percent on 18/11/2018 - 12:15
      +1

      The Reply All podcast on this was excellent. Highly recommended if you haven't heard it already

  • spackbace on 18/11/2018 - 03:36
    +3

    God this scam has been doing the rounds for years!

    There's a sucker born every minute

    https://www.ato.gov.au/Media-centre/Media-releases/Don-t-get…

    12th May, 2016

    I thought everyone knew about this by now…

    • DEvok on 18/11/2018 - 04:53

      Clearly not, my colleague is a visa student, I really feel bad for the outsiders who don’t know this, but those phone calls must have put up a very good show or the victims are just not very knowledgeable.

      • HighAndDry on 18/11/2018 - 10:33
        +6

        Seriously. Police asking people to pay fines using iTunes gift cards.

      • Ughhh on 18/11/2018 - 12:05
        +4

        just not very knowledgeable

        One of the symptoms of a spoon fed person imo. Sometimes when people say things, especially when it doesnt even make sense to pay fines with iTunes gift cards , you gotta stop for a second and use your brain. If you don't use your brain, you'll keep getting scammed.

      • brad1-8tsi on 03/12/2018 - 12:59

        I would think the latter - not very knowledgeable.

        One of my work colleagues is late 20s, nepalese and has a degree in MechEng and a masters in Rocket Science (so he isn't without brains). He was buying a 2nd hand car from a dealership and asked me how much MORE than the asking price he should offer. It's not an isolated incident either.

  • kyle on 18/11/2018 - 06:33
    +2

    Geez it really is still happening. I was buying my Google Play cards the other day at Coles to get my 2000 points and the self checkout person asked if I was aware of the scam.

    • Pikaloo on 18/11/2018 - 06:39

      were you being profiled? or was it just based on the fact you were buying many cards? or some of both?

      • kyle on 18/11/2018 - 06:51

        I only bought 2 $50…

      • tomsco on 18/11/2018 - 13:53

        I’ve heard Coles staff talking about it before. I don’t know if it’s a company wide thing, but it does sound like some staff try to warn people they think may be getting scammed.

        • D C on 18/11/2018 - 17:22

          Some stores have/had stickers on the registers - "Don't pay your 'fine' with gift cards." Woolies, JB-Hi, etc.

          • kerfuffle on 18/11/2018 - 22:19
            +1

            @D C: They're even on the iTunes gift card themselves that they cannot be used to pay the ATO

  • 87percent on 18/11/2018 - 06:47
    +5

    Hmmm.. police require iTunes credit to pay a fine? I'm not sure what gave it away.

  • try2bhelpful on 18/11/2018 - 07:04

    It does beggar belief that people think Governent entities would take iTunes cards as currency for payment. The head office may take pity because nobody questioned purchasing a large number of cards but, strictly, they don’t need to. I’ve seen places with signs up warning people about these sort of scams.

    My sister used to work at the post office and they were always warning people who were transferring money overseas about dodgy scams

    This issue also extends to people direct debiting to dodgy sites. Pay with credit card, you have a better chance of getting the transaction reversed.

  • Melb69 on 18/11/2018 - 08:23

    Hi I am calling you because we need to advise you that you have an outstanding tax/fine that needs your urgent attention. Blah Blah. We need payment today otherwise the Sherriff will be called and you will be served a notice to go to court/jail. Payment can be by cash or credit. You don't have a credit card. That's fine. We now accept iTunes card at payment. These are available from any supermarkets. At what point do you think alarm bells should ring.

    Tips. Hang up. Don't answer any questions or say Yes to anything. Don't give out your personal details. Block number.
    I mean even in this instance $2800 is a large amount. Who has that sitting in their bank just to give to scammers.

    The more I think of this the more angry it makes me as the scam obviously works and the crimes are not getting caught. Just wrong.

    The other good one is the Ill block your internet if you dont pay this amount scam. Works well as if they can get their Malware onto your computer they put the death screen on it to threaten you.

    • 87percent on 18/11/2018 - 10:20

      This is the greatest scam in the history of scams..

  • bobbified on 18/11/2018 - 08:40
    +9

    I might sound harsh by saying this, but I often wonder how dumb some people are if alarm bells don't go off in peoples' heads as soon as they're directed to pay a fine:

    1) for something they've never heard of/done, and
    2) using something such as iTune cards instead of cash/credit cards.

    • Melb69 on 18/11/2018 - 09:08

      Yes there are those people out there. Believe it or not.

      • bobbified on 18/11/2018 - 11:59

        There's definitely not-so-smart people out there, but I find it so hard to believe there's people like this. And then I wonder if they're really that stupid, did they earn the money in the first place or who's money is it really? I look at something like this and think that it might not be such a bad thing if they have learnt a lesson out of that. $2800 isnt too expensive for a life lesson!

    • Ughhh on 18/11/2018 - 10:16
      +3

      Sometimes I wonder how they survive in real life. If it still the animal kingdom…

      • bobbified on 18/11/2018 - 11:57
        +1

        I often wonder that too!!

        I mean, there are other scams where I look at how it works and I can see how someone might fall for them.

        But iTune cards? Why the f would the government want someone to buy iTunes cards? lol

    • -.- on 18/11/2018 - 10:19
      +3

      It's a volume game for the scammers. If just 1 in 100 people or even 1000 people fall for it, it's worth pursuing for them. There are more naive people out then we'd like to admit, after all common sense is not all that common.

  • Lozza92 on 18/11/2018 - 10:02

    At my local Coles store they have a sign up near the gift cards warning about these scams and the other day they had an announcement over the instore PA about the scam telling people that Government agencies never request payment by gift card.

  • Ughhh on 18/11/2018 - 10:14

    My local Coles woolies has signs at checkout too about the scams.

    I don't think ops friend is entitled to a refund, unless the gift card can be cancelled.

    • Melb69 on 18/11/2018 - 11:31

      Gift cards are like cash. If you lose them or don't use them before expiry its gone.

    • bobbified on 18/11/2018 - 12:11

      I don't think ops friend is entitled to a refund

      No chance of a refund! Apple would already know that so they're just handballing the problem off to the retailer!

      • Ughhh on 18/11/2018 - 12:21

        Yup. Though I think OP thinks he has a chance, even more of a chance if he had paid with a credit card!

  • Quantumcat on 18/11/2018 - 13:45

    If he can't get a refund he should at least register them to his iTunes account - better than losing it. It's only 23 years of Netflix.

    • bobbified on 18/11/2018 - 14:19

      Quoting from OP

      … I went to appl support and asked they said they can not do much as iTunes cards have been used..

      Someone's prob already "reclaimed" the card numbers before with the scammers. Now they're smarter and prob just use it straightaway.

      • Quantumcat on 18/11/2018 - 15:11

        Oops I missed that

  • Yola on 19/11/2018 - 12:15
    +1

    This post on this subject is hilarious.
    https://www.facebook.com/LADbible/videos/2064444406959764/

  • owatson on 20/11/2018 - 16:31
    +1

    I think people should have been very familiar with such scams, because they have been around trying to steal our money since years ago. Almost everyday I could read people's reports about similar scams at sites like http://whycall.me and another similar sites. We need to keep spreading the words to our family, though.

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