An article from Siouxland News, written by Jetske Wauran, stated that a local couple were recently scammed out of $1,000.
Janie Koch, Sergeant Bluff, said that she received a friend request on Facebook.com from a known friend. After a few messages back and forth, the friend explained to Koch that she could claim $150,000 if she called a certain number. Koch continued to make the phone call and a women named “Megan” answered and said that in order to claim the $150,000 Koch would have to pay a $1,000 filing fee.
Through some explaining Koch was told to go to the local Walgreens and buy $1,000 in eBay cards. After purchasing these cards, Koch was told to give the numbers on the cards to “Megan” and then the $150,000 would arrive at Koch’s door on Monday.
Of course, the money never arrived.
I thought this article was well written and straight to the point. I think it is important for the local community to know about this as well as any larger community as well. The internet alone can be considered a massive community and bringing awareness to scams like this is very important, especially for people who are not quite familiar with social media and the internet.
Article:
Welcome back to the News Comments, Nick.
This is what Harold Lasswell would call a watchdog story. It identifies a dangerous situation the average person should avoid. Unless they want to be scammed.