Penticton, B.C. resident warning others of phone purchase scam

A Penticton, B.C., resident is warning others to beware after falling victim to a new and sophisticated phone purchase scam.

Nearly two months ago, Nadine Meagher received a phone call and the person on the other end of the line was claiming to be a Best Buy representative.

“Saying that they wanted to know if I wanted to upgrade my phone at a better plan and it sounded great,” said Meagher.

“So, I said sure, and they said it would take a few days for the phone to get delivered to me. It got delivered on a FedEx truck.”

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However, when the phone arrived, Meagher said it was not the one she had ordered.

She then contacted the number to notify them of the mix-up and did as instructed to send the phone back to who Meagher thought was Best Buy.

“He said don’t worry, ma’am, we sent out 55 wrong packages, it was a glitch in the system. What we’re going to do is we’re going to send you a UPS label to your Gmail, print that off, take it to your local UPS Store, send it back and we’ll send you the correct phone,” said Meagher.

“I did all that, I took it to UPS and I shipped it. A few days go by, I didn’t get the proper phone, so I phoned the number. And they disconnected me, like I could no longer call that number anymore. And then I started to put the pieces together that yeah, it’s a scam.”

Months later Meagher says she is still dealing with the fallout of this scam.

The scam has been reported to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Agency and Penticton RCMP and Meagher says she has been in contact with Fido and Best Buy since February.

“I’m worried about the UPS label, it has my signature. And they have my name, my driver’s license, my address, they ordered the phone under my name and had it sent to my address. I stupidly sent it right to them,” said Meagher.

“Then I typed in St. John’s and realized there’s no Best Buy at that address. It’s been very frustrating because I’m worried what else they can do with my information. And just that I’m still being billed from Fido.”

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According to RCMP, scams like this have become increasingly frequent and sophisticated.

“If you feel as though you’re receiving a call that is suspicious like this, certainly you can hang up… and you can certainly call the local police and report the incident,” said Southeast District RCMP spokesperson Cpl. James Grandy.

“Scammers are also getting more complex with what they’re asking and how they’re going about trying to obtain this information. But they’re all typically trying to get at the same type of information. It’s personal information, it’s banking information, stuff that just should not be provided over the phone and doesn’t need to be.”

Meagher is now warning others to beware of potential scams, adding that if it seems too good to be true, it probably is.

“I am pretty aware of scams and pretty smart and they do this to me,” she said. “I worry about vulnerable people like seniors that are needing a new phone or wanting to upgrade and then they fall for this.”

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