Oak Bay Police are investigating another case of credit card fraud in the community, where a resident lost a substantial amount of money to a sophisticated scam.
The incident was brought to light on July 24th, when the victim visited the Oak Bay Police Department to report the fraudulent activity.
According to police, the resident recounted that they had received a phone call from an individual claiming to be from “Visa.”
The caller informed the victim about unauthorized charges on their credit card and requested them to verify the last four digits of their credit card.
After this initial contact, the victim was transferred to what was purported to be the fraud department. The alleged fraud department persuaded the victim to cooperate in an “internal fraud investigation.”
Under the guidance of the fraudsters, the victim was instructed to withdraw substantial sums of money from their bank account.
This intricate scheme involved multiple rounds of withdrawals and deposits, gradually siphoning off the victim’s funds.
The victim withdrew $5,000 from their bank account and deposit it into a Bitcoin machine, according to Oak Bay police.
After the first withdrawal, the victim was duped into withdrawing and depositing another $7,000 into a Bitcoin machine.
The following day, the victim was contacted by the scammers again and withdrew another $5,000. After depositing $2,700 of this third haul, the victim “encountered some issues depositing the remainder of the money,” police said.
While the victim initially deposited a portion of the money as instructed, a vigilant bank teller eventually raised suspicions about the transactions.
The teller’s intervention triggered a realization that the victim might be entangled in a scam. Despite the victim’s losses amounting to $14,700.00, the bank’s timely alert potentially spared them from further financial harm.
This unfortunate occurrence comes on the heels of a recent incident where an Oak Bay resident lost $8,000 through an e-transfer scam, masquerading as a representative of BC Hydro.
In this prior case, the victim received a call informing them of an impending power disconnection due to overdue payments, leading them to hastily send the funds in e-transfers. The realization that their BC Hydro bills were already settled dawned too late, and the entire incident was a fraudulent ploy.
Another scam appears to be emerging in the region, specifically affecting users on local classifieds websites.
Scammers pose as buyers, offering e-transfers to purchase or place holds on items for sale.
When the buyer accepts the e-transfer, it presents the seller with a few extra steps, like entering your bank account information in order to receive the money.
In the background what’s actually taking place is the scammers are redirecting funds from sellers’ accounts into their own, draining the sellers’ bank accounts.
West Shore RCMP said they have received five reports in the last few weeks regarding this type of scam.
