Have you ever received a phone call that doesn’t feel quite right? These days, it feels like more and more people are getting random scam phone calls. Most of these phone calls are pretty harmless, like when someone offers you a dream vacation and you know it sounds too good to be true. But, sometimes people call claiming to have some special knowledge about you, and that’s when the situation gets dicey.
A lot of people don’t know how to recognize these advances scam calls, and they don’t know what to do about them. Fortunately, some grocery store chains are starting to change that, by educating their employees to step in. At one supermarket, that education was put to the test with amazing results.
Sophia Rossi knew something wasn’t quite right when Jean walked up to her aisle.
Rossi and one of the cashiers at a Colorado-based Safeway noticed that Jean was panicking in their grocery store. The two employees immediately knew to take Jean aside and ask her what was going on. Although Jean was scared, she was able to explain the situation.
This is the threat that got Jean so scared.
She says she was threatened by an imposter, claiming to have power over her bank accounts. She says that they told her:
“If I didn’t cooperate, then it was going to be in the newspaper this morning and everybody would know and they were going to strip me of my Social Security card and close all the different accounts of stuff that were in my name, and I’m like, ‘you got a be kidding’. He said, ‘then you’re going to go to jail’ and I’m like, ‘what?’ He said, ‘yeah, we got a warrant out for you.’ That’s what got me. That scared the hell out of me.”
Jean says that she was told that she had to buy $700 in eBay gift cards and give them to the scammer. Both Rossi and her coworker recognized this for what it was.
Rossi said she could immediately recognize this as a scam.
In an interview with News 5, she explained a few telltale signs:
“When Social Security numbers are brought up, or I’m making a purchase on one website but having to get gift cards for another website, or my computer’s been compromised stuff like that. You’re never going to need large amounts of money in like Google Play gift cards. It’s not going to happen. So right away I recognized that that’s what it was.”
Government or bank officials will never ask you to put money on a gift card.
The Safeway employees were able to step in and help Jean because of their helpful education.
Safeway has been implementing more training to teach employees about the signs of a scam. This education starts with helping to encourage people to speak up about what is happening to them, which is exactly what Rossi helped Jean with. Because Jean talked about what was happening, even though she had been threatened to not say anything, Rossi was able to help her put a stop to it.
This type of scam call has been happening more and more lately.
According to the Federal Trade Commission, reports of gift card scams have increased by 270% since 2015. Additionally, in 2018, people paid $53 million to scammers demanding payment in gift cards. This is happening mostly to senior citizens.
That’s why it’s important that we all know how to identify a scam, and commit to stepping up to help one another out.
Rossi says she wanted to help out because she identified with Jean. She says:
“Absolutely. If somebody did that to my mom or my grandma, I would be so upset. I would hope that somebody would be in that position to be able to stop that.”
A big thanks to Sophia Rossi for knowing exactly what to do, and for putting a stop to a bad situation.
Watch the video below to hear it in Jean and Sophia’s own words.
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