Sunshine Coast RCMP say they’re seeing a fresh wave of scams, two of them targeting online buyers and sellers.
In one case an area resident selling an item on a popular on-line classified site thought they had a buyer. A price was set, but the buyer sent a cheque for much more and said the extra was to cover shipping. The suspicious seller had a bank confirm it was fraudulent.
In a similar case a person who wanted to buy concert tickets from an on-line classified was asked to send partial payment via e-mail transfer to a third party and the balance when the tickets arrived. They never did.
RCMP also say somebody was caught by a computer virus that caused a pop-up window, and when they clicked it someone called them and talked them into giving a credit card number and remote access to the computer. By the time they realized it was a scam and tried to cancel the credit card it was too late; the fraudster had already used the account.
The Canadian Anti Fraud Centre keeps tabs on the latest scams and offers advice on how not to get taken in.
