Another warning to be “cyber aware” as scammers step up their game — impersonating anyone and everyone to get what they want.
Something Calgarian Wayne Wheaton, who considers himself “scam savvy,” recently found out.
“I get this text and I think it’s from my boss,” he told Global News. “He goes, ‘I need you to buy nine, $100 Apple gift cards.’”
Wheaton, who is a relatively new employee with PrevTech Innovations Inc., said he had no reason to doubt it was his boss sending the messages. Even though the texts were coming from a California phone number.
“I just figured he’s traveling in the States,” he told Global news. “I immediately left here, and I had them bought within five minutes of him texting me.”
The texter then told Wheaton to send him the codes off the back of the cards, as well as copies of the receipts. But then, he did something Wheaton found suspicious and made him stop short of sending him any information.
“The next words from him were’ ‘Understood?’” Wheaton added. “My boss thinks I’m very competent. There’s no way he would question my ability.”
That’s when he got on the company email and sent his actual boss a message.
“He called me within three minutes and said, ‘It’s not me Wayne,’ and that’s how I knew I was scammed.”
Calgary businessman warns others about text scams.
