Saw this on another site, Figured I'd pay it forward Scammers - Package Delivery The following is a recounting of the incident from the victim: "I had a phone call from someone saying that he was from some outfit called "Express Couriers." He asked if I was going to be home because there was a package for me that required a signature. "The caller said that the delivery would arrive at my home in approximately an hour. Sure enough, about an hour later a uniformed delivery man turned up with a beautiful basket of flowers and a bottle of wine. I was very surprised, since there was no special occasion or holiday, and I, certainly, didn't expect anything like it. Intrigued, I inquired as to who the sender was. "The courier replied, "I don't know, I'm only delivering the package.” Apparently, a greeting card was being sent separately (the card has never arrived). There was also a consignment note with the gift. He then went on to explain that because the gift contained alcohol, there was a $3.50 "delivery/ verification charge," providing proof that he actually had delivered the package to an adult of legal drinking age, and not just left it on the doorstep where it could be stolen or taken by anyone. "This sounded logical and I offered to pay him cash. He then said that the delivery company required payment to be by credit or debit card only, so that everything is properly accounted for, and this would help in keeping a legal record of the transaction. He added, “couriers don't carry cash to avoid loss or being, likely, targets for robbery.” "My husband, who was standing beside me, pulled out his credit card. The "delivery man" asked him to swipe the card on a small mobile card machine. My husband was asked to enter his PIN (red flag) number and a receipt was printed out. He was given a copy of the transaction The delivery person said everything was in order, and wished us good day, and left. "To our horrible surprise, between Thursday and the following Monday, $4,000 had been charged/withdrawn from our credit/debit account at various ATM machines. Apparently, the "mobile credit card machine," which the deliveryman carried, had all the info necessary to create a "dummy" card with all our card details including the PIN number. "Upon finding out about the illegal transactions on our card, we immediately notified the bank, which issued a new card and our credit/debit account was closed. We also went to the police, where it was confirmed that it is, definitely, a scam because several households had been similarly hit WARNING: Be wary of accepting any "surprise gift or package," which you neither expected nor personally ordered, especially if it involves any kind of payment as a condition of receiving the gift or package. Also, never accept anything if you do not, personally, know or there is no proper identification of who the sender is. The only time you should give out any personal credit/debit card information is when you yourself initiated the purchase or transaction.
If this happens to you get the description and License Plate Number of the vehicle, in question being driven by the perp… Also document the Messenger by taking his/her cellphone picture… This will facilitate charging these Fraudsters in court…
If you do not know whom it is from, simply refuse it. Can’t be any more simple than that. Every now and the, I do scan the hundreds of emails that all end up in my spam folder, a lot of them claim to be from FedEx/UPS/DHL stating that I have a parcel waiting to be delivered, but I have to pay a certain amount to receive it. Thing is, none of them will ship anything without the full shipping cost paid for by the sender. Just use good ‘ol fashioned COMMON SENSE.
Good plan. I would have kept the flowers, handed the wine back to the driver : "no alcohol, no fee, right ?" and smiled.
