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SUPPORTING LOCAL HOSPICE Oakville Beaver | Thursday, December 8, 2022 | 28 RAFALGAR MASONIC LODGE § 10,000.00 fan Anderson House Ven Vhousand DDGM Hamilton District A Charity Drive Michael Wright photo Ron Thompson (left) and Roy Oldfield of Trafalgar Masonic Lodge present a cheque for $10,000 to lan Anderson Hospice's Michelle Lambert. fthy Great n 11-6 Featuring a Native American Flutist with Coffee & Organic Sweets from Ten Sweets Healthy Monday, Dec 12 i« Call to Book today with me at 905-815-1142 Nieto ms sxe]Ke) Colour & Hair Stylist HOLIDAY DEALS: 10% OFF FREE TREATMENT WITH A BLOW- OUT New clients only for Cut, Colour & Style Organic Salon Holiday Packages insidehalton.com CRIME POLICE WARN RESIDENTS ABOUT RISE DAVID LEA dlea@metroland.com Halton police are warn- ing residents to be cautious after several people recent- na reported being conned giving fraudsters thousands through card purchases. Det. Const. Derek oy said scams invol cards have been on nthe rise vember alone police heard from 10 victims who lost a combined le said some of these victims, who tend to be old- er adults, were talked into buying $5,000 or even $10,000 worth of Amazon, iTunes, Steam, Sephora or Google Play gift cards. Gray said the scam can take various forms where the victim is contacted by phone, et On some occasions vic- tims are called by someone claiming to be from their bank who claims hae as an issue with their card and the victim eels fraudster pretends to be a computer company and is seeking to fix a prob- lem with the victim's com- uter. Gray said in a more di- rect version the fraudster falsely claims the victim has something illegal on their computer and police will be called unless the also sometimes masquerade as a friend or relative in trou. ble who needs quick mon- ey. Whatever version is used, the victim will even- tually be directed to go toa store and purchase gift ards. "The frauds always have IN SCAMS Metroland file photo Scams are on the rise in Halton, warn police. two common elements; which are emergency,” said Gray. Once the gift cards are purchased, Gray said, the Handster will direct the provide the code on the back of each card so the credit can be moved from the gift cards to the Traudster's account online. there the fraud- ster will sell the credit on- line for cash. Even after the initial scam is complete, Gray says, that's probably not the end of it. The fraudsters, he said, will typically call a victim who fell for the scam back and try to get more. One Halton victim, Gray noted, was fooled into believing she had won a $1 million lottery and just needed to pay a few thou- sand dollars, via gift cards, for the funds to be released. After they succeeded the scammers called this person back again and again each time telling her the lottery win was now larger and as such more money was needed to re- lease it. By the time the victim realized she had been scammed she had already Jost $30,000. Gray says this type of gift card fraud is untrace- for it is going to get their money back. When confronted by one of these scams, Gray sait residents need to ao. some research and this could mean calling the main line ofa bank or computer com- pany (not phone numbers provided by the caller) to see if there really is is- sue. He also called on resi- dents not to give away per- sonal information unless they are certain who they are talking Gray are on to say that residents also need to slow down and think when it comes to large financial transactions. " with a friend, check with the police, talk to your neighbour, talk to your spouse. If we take five minutes to say, 'Is this a good idea? What is my risk? We really could stopa lot of frauds by slowing tions down," said Gray. Anyone who has fallen victim to this type of scam is asked to contact their bank and secure their fi- nancial products and then ontact Halton police at 905: 465-8741.