SWAMPSCOTT — A Walgreens employee was able to stop a 92-year-old Swampscott man from being scammed out of thousands of dollars last Friday.
The scam rescue was all thanks to Swampscott Police’s new scam alert initiative, which provides targeted residents with information on how to spot and avoid popular scams, such as the IRS scam, the bail/accident scam, the sweepstakes scam, the tech support scam, and the Internet sale scam, said Sgt. Jay Locke. Informational meetings and brief visits to the town’s senior center and assisted living facilities, as well as passing out posters with scam avoidance tips on them, are all part of the program.
“We had a victory,” said Locke. “A gentleman was contacted by a group or someone who said there was a fraudulent purchase for a 75-inch TV on his account. They told him they could rectify it if he went to a store and bought some Google Play cards. He went to Walgreens and one of the tellers looked at the scam poster we gave the store and she showed it to him. The guy rethought buying the cards and avoided giving out a couple thousand dollars of his own money.”
Swampscott Police were called to the Paradise Road Walgreens and gave the man, who wishes to remain anonymous, an ID theft package to fill out, said Locke. The package, which, according to Locke, is an easy way for officers to track a scam victim’s accounts, gets filled out with the victim’s date of birth, any credit card or account numbers that might be compromised, and information on how to check their credit.
Edward Connell, the Swampscott Walgreens manager, said the scam alert poster is hanging at the top of the store’s gift card rack. Another employee was able to stop a woman from being scammed out of $250 on Tuesday, he said.
“She was buying a Google Play card for $250,” said Connell. “At the register she was asked why she was buying it and then we told her about our gift card policy that states she wouldn’t be able to return it. She told us her computer got locked out, a pop-up came up and told her to call Microsoft at this number and it all sounded legit.”
Connell and the employee asked the unidentified woman if they could call a third party and verify the Microsoft number. He said they looked up the computer company’s number online, called it, and they were advised it was indeed a scam. Microsoft continued to help the woman over the phone and walked her through shutting down the computer, he said.
Walgreens has a limit that customers can’t buy more than $750 in gift cards, said Connell. When a customer comes to the register with an excessive amount of gift cards, Connell said employees know to ask questions before following through with the purchase.
More awareness and more education on how residents can avoid scams would be helpful, said Connell. His store sees one to two people a week being scammed to buy gift cards, he said.
“If someone contacts you, don’t go taking money out for people you don’t know,” said Locke. “If something seems wrong, stay cautious. These scammers are definitely taking advantage of the elderly.”
Bella diGrazia can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @BelladiGrazia.