Vista resident Jan Hoops recently fell victim to a gift card scam that started with a pop-up alert on her computer, instructing her to call a fake Microsoft support number.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe scammer told me that my bank and CD accounts had been hacked, and all my money was stolen,\u201d Hoops said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The con artist persuaded her to withdraw thousands of dollars from her bank accounts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI withdrew money from three different Mission Federal Credit Union branches, and then he had me go to Lowe\u2019s to buy gift cards\u2014$1,000 on each card,\u201d Hoops explained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The scammer then asked her to read the numbers off the back of the gift cards, unknowingly allowing him to cash them in. \u201cThe total loss is about $24,000,\u201d Hoops said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A Mission Federal Credit Union spokesperson declined to comment on specific customer accounts but emphasized their commitment to member security and education.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAt Mission Fed, protecting our members’ financial information is our top priority. We train our employees to detect fraudulent activity and have procedures to verify the safety of transactions. Unfortunately, no one is completely immune to fraud, which is on the rise,\u201d the spokesperson stated. \u201cWe never ask members to withdraw funds. Our website offers resources and tips on fraud prevention.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Despite warnings from employees at both Mission Federal and Lowe\u2019s about the suspicious transactions, Hoops said the scammer insisted she not trust bank or store staff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThey told me, \u2018This is a scam that\u2019s been going around. We want to make sure you\u2019re not being coerced,\u2019\u201d Hoops recalled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The scammer kept Hoops on the phone throughout the entire process, instructing her not to trust anyone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI want people to know this is real. I never thought I could be fooled, but it happened,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The best advice? If someone calls claiming your bank account has been hacked, hang up immediately. Then, call your bank using a verified number to check for any fraudulent activity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Vista resident Jan Hoops recently fell victim to a gift card scam that started with a pop-up alert on her computer, instructing her to call a fake Microsoft support number. \u201cThe scammer told me that my bank and CD accounts had been hacked, and all my money was stolen,\u201d Hoops said. The con artist persuaded […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4549,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[175,116],"tags":[185,33],"class_list":["post-4548","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gift-scam","category-scammer-news","tag-gift-card-scam","tag-scam-awareness"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ripandscam.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4548","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ripandscam.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ripandscam.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ripandscam.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ripandscam.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4548"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ripandscam.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4548\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4550,"href":"https:\/\/www.ripandscam.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4548\/revisions\/4550"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ripandscam.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4549"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ripandscam.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4548"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ripandscam.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4548"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ripandscam.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4548"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}