Don’t Fall Prey to Phone Scammers
CONUS facilities continue to receive scam phone calls regarding loading POSA/gift cards, including a recent $3,000 loss at F.E. Warren AFB in Wyoming. The scammer used the name of Exchange Chief Operating Officer “David” Nelson to pull off the ruse.
In most cases, scammers, using an influential name of an Exchange manager, like Chief Operating Officer Dave Nelson, or military rank, will tell the associate an investigation, criminal inquiry or inspector general’s complaint is being conducted.
They will then instruct the associate to provide the gift card numbers and load them with specific amounts.
“Exchange associates should never take financial transactions over the phone,” warned Steve Boyd, a senior field loss prevention operations manager. “All financial transactions must have a customer present at a cash register, with some form of payment in hand. No one in the Exchange or any company or person doing business with the Exchange is authorized to conduct financial transactions over the phone.”
The only people requesting these transactions over the phone are the scammers. The scammers have a very keen ability to talk employees into loading cards or conducting Western Union transactions over the phone. Do not fall prey to them.
If you should receive a phone call from somebody requesting a financial transaction, don’t engage in conversation and hang up immediately. Report the call to Loss Prevention and your general manager.
