GRAND JUNCTION, Colo (KREX) - It only takes one call, one click. You may be targeted for any number of scams, one of them being a gift card scam.
Mesa County's Clerk and Recorder Bobbi Gross says, "I have a relative that I take care of frequently and we try to help manage her money and take care of her. She has been targeted by scam after scam so we've took over her checking account and her finances and that kind of thing to help mitigate some of that. We thought we had all of our bases covered until she got a call and somebody told her that she wanted to make a million and so they told her you needed to go to the bank and get the money."
Gross tells WesternSlopeNow that her relative couldn't drive, but the scammers had a solution for that.
"We started asking her more questions and she said ‘Oh, I went to the cab carrier to pick me up.’ They called the cab and who they are, we don't know," Bobbi states.
Gross' relative would be picked up not once, but twice, for two separate trips to the store. The scammer would have a cab pick up Bobbi's relative and another time to the bank to pull $250 out of her account. Then the scammer would call again.
Gross states, "They called her again trying to get her to go get a gift card. So they told her it's not just a regular Visa gift card, they're trying to get her to buy something like Apple Pay, Google Pay card or a Steam card."
Grand Junction Police Department Service Technician's Mary Speer states, "We're seeing gift cards used in all types of scams from romance scams, contractor scams, Microsoft computer scams to boring scams. It's one of the easiest and most prolific ways that they ask for money."
Gross' relative would forget the type of gift card the scammers requested. But she told WesternSlopeNow that her relative would catch on and disregard the next time they called.
"If you're instructed to do it to satisfy some type of a scam award or anything like that. It's probably fraudulent and it's best to just not do it," Speer states.
"It's ultimately a very scary situation to put them in and it's their target our elderly people," Gross states.
When it comes to potential scam calls, be aware the scammers may be on the other line.