LANSING (WWJ) - Attorney General Dana Nessel released a warning for Michiganders as phone scammers reportedly come up with elaborate schemes to rip people off.
Related
In her latest announcement on YouTube, Nessel's parents take a phone call from a scammer impersonating Nessel. The scammer says they are stuck on the side of the road and need funds from a gift card to pay for a tow truck.
Nessel tells her parents, "it's not me," before reminding viewers that "gift cards are for gifting, not for paying people."
“Scam artists will call, text or email people trying to get them to buy a gift card and then ask for the gift card number over the phone,” Nessel said.
“If someone asks for payment using a gift card from Amazon, Target or some other store, it’s a scam. Hang up or delete the message.”
Nessel's latest announcement is part of series of alerts put out by her office to highlight how scammers try to get Michiganders to comply with their demands.
Several of the phone scams involve gift cards, where money is put on a gift card and the number is provided to the scammer -- this makes the transaction irreversible. Most scammers find gift cards to be the ideal method of payment because they cannot be traced.
Nessel also released a consumer alert about the Grandparent-Family Emergency scam, where scammers pretend to have kidnapped a family member and demand ransom for their release. The two cases involving this kind of scam happened to two Michigan mothers who said scammers knew the names of their daughters and insisted on wire payments.
Earlier this week, Nessel also announced her office would seek court action against scammers who pretend to offer TV services, like those through AT&T DirecTV. Like the gift card scam, the fake employees tell victims that pre-payment to start services is required by gift card.
All alerts are available on the Department's website, designed to keep consumers up-to-date and current on schemes that could rip them off.
Nessel reminded consumers that complaints can be made on the Attorney General's website. For any questions or concerns, consumers have been asked to call the office at 877-765-8388.
Related
