Mill Creek woman loses $500 to online gift card scammer posing as anti-virus company rep: Police

ST. CHARLES TOWNSHIP – A resident of the Mill Creek subdivision in Blackberry Township reported last month that she lost $500 in a scam that started with an email from someone pretending to work for an anti-virus software company, according to Kane County Sheriff’s reports.

The resident of the 1S000 block of West Burnham Lane told deputies Nov. 22 that she had received an email from an anti-virus software company, confirming her subscription to its services for $350, the report stated.

As she had not signed up for that service, the woman called the phone number in the email, and talked to a man who said he would refund her the $350 – but she needed to download software on her computer to allow access, the report stated.

She downloaded the software and allowed access to her online bank account. The man on the phone said they would refund her money in two separate transactions starting with $200 – but then he “accidentally” added an extra digit to the amount, the report stated.

The man then said she needed to repay him for the error.

“The male would make several threats and accusations of her breaking the law if she did not repay them,” the report stated.

He then told her to get five $500 Apple gift cards and three $500 Target gift cards – a $4,000 value. She did that and provided all the gift card codes to him in a conversation that spanned around three hours, the report stated.

At one point the woman became suspicious. She then contacted Apple and had them disable the gift card codes, saving her $2,500. To her knowledge, one Target gift card for $500 had been redeemed, the report stated.

The woman told deputies that she notified her bank and would be responding to Jewel and Walgreens to get the remaining two gift cards, valued at $1,000, refunded, the report stated.

According to the Federal Trade Commission, scammers are known to ask to be paid via gift card. The FTC advises consumers never to pay anyone with a gift card, cryptocurrency or a wire transfer service.

Scams can be reported to ReportFraud.ftc.gov.