PARK CITY, Utah, March 16, 2021 (Gephardt Daily) — Park City police are warning of a gift card scam.
“Fraudsters use many schemes to scam people out of their hard-earned money,” said a Facebook post from Park City Police Department.
“One of those scams is through the purchase of gift cards. If someone is asking you to put money on a gift card to pay them, it’s a scam. We have seen a dramatic increase in the number of reported fraud cases, and the types of fraud seen most frequently are gift card scams.”
Scammers typically request the code on the back of the gift cards so they can use them online, the post said. Sometimes these criminals even claim to be law enforcement officials or calling in behalf of government agencies like the IRS, demanding payment of unpaid bills.
“If you receive one of these calls, immediately hang up the phone and call the number on your account statement, in the phone book or on the company’s or government agency’s website and ask if they reached out to you,” the post said. “Legitimate businesses and government agencies will never demand payment in gift cards. Never provide the numbers on the back of a gift card to someone you don’t know. Once those numbers are provided to the scammers, the funds on the card will likely be spent before you are able to contact the merchant or law enforcement.”
If you have any questions or need to report a scam call the Park City Police Department at the non-emergency number 435-615-5500 and request to speak with an officer.
For additional information regarding gift card scams, click here.
