Gift card scam hits older folk

OLDER PEOPLE should beware a new scam that involves being asked to pay alleged debts or fines using iTunes gift cards.

Fraudsters will often try to confuse their victims by throwing technical terms around or, as in this case, asking for fines to be settled using online store cards.

Commonly, a fraudster will call a victim claiming to be from a Government authority, such as the police or HMRC.

They then inform the victim that an amount of unpaid tax is due, or they are suspected of criminal charges, and to avoid any criminal convictions they must pay a fine.

As the over-65s tend not to be frequent users of services such as iTunes, Google Play, or PlayStation Network, fraudsters are able to use this lack of awareness to their advantage, insisting it’s the only way to process payment of the fine.

This makes it much more difficult for banks and the police to track the money leaving a victim’s account and arriving in the fraudster’s account.

With an average loss of more than £1000 per victim it’s a very profitable scam and, while companies like Apple and organisations like HMRC are actively distributing advice warning people of the con, it’s still a huge threat and shows no signs of slowing down.