Scammers Want To Put A Zero On It

A word of warning: Beyonce says, “Caused if you liked it then you should’ve put a ring on it.”  When it comes to your prepaid debit card or Paypal account, maybe someone adding a zero to your existing funds isn’t such a great idea. Please don’t let scammers put a ZERO on it.

Times are hard. But please don’t fall prey to this latest scam. Heard about it on the local news. This poor woman is in shadow. She doesn’t want to show her face because, well, quite simply, she has aided and abetted in her own robbing. A total stranger contacted her, said if she had one of those prepaid credit cards, she could crack some code, add a ‘0’ and make her life much richer.

These thieves are all over the place: Facebook, Instagram, Craigslist, Twitter, etc. Any place they can set up a bogus profile and lure you in with the promise of a quick buck. If you have $200 on your prepaid debit card, wherever you’ve purchased it, this scammer promises to add a ‘0’. So, she/he will turn your $200, to $2000, your $500, to $5000. You get the picture.

The shadow lady on the local news handed over her pin number and the rest as they say is history. Instead of that promised ‘0’ being added to her account, she ended up with ‘0’ and a horrible lesson learned, hopefully. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Don’t be a sucker.

This person disappeared like the thief in the night he/she was. Once they’ve gotten your money, it’s all but impossible to get it back. Remember, the prepaid credit card is not a credit card in the sense that you’re dealing with a legitimate bank, say Wells Fargo, Bank of America, Chase, etc. THIS IS YOUR MONEY. Think of the prepaid card like your own personal piggy bank.

Please don’t let greed and/or some desperate situation turn you into a silhouette on the local news, putting the story out there about how you assisted in your own robbing. Instead of the scammer adding a ‘0’ to her balance, Ms. Silhouette was left with a ZERO balance on her card.

According to the BBB, Green Dot Moneypak is currently the most used preload debit card. That’s why it’s these particular scammers card of choice. Keeping their finger on the pulse of parting folks from their cash is what they do. Check out this very in depth link to how this scam works. http://www.today.com/money/scammers-now-accepting-green-dot-moneypaks-1C8721925

Should you be contacted via social media, call or text, on the street, a knock at the door, by someone insisting he/she can just manipulate your card, tell them, “thanks but no thanks.” Let others know about this scam, especially the elderly, a population often targeted by scammers. One part common sense, one part knowledge can be a powerful potion to ward off heartless scammers.

FYI: Some claim this scam actually delivered as promised. If it did, it was probably a few bucks, just my opinion. Just enough to turn some person into the scammer(s)’s own personal mule, without the person even knowing. I mean seeing someone’s twenty buck account increased to $200 would make most of us want a piece of that action, right. Sometime it’s the price a scammer pays to do business. Again, don’t be fooled.