A Joshua Tree man is out more than $20,000 after falling victim to a popular phone scam. According to Sheriff’s reports, the man had been contacted by a scammer saying he owed money for an undisclosed reason. Over the course of a year, the man provided more than $20,000 in prepaid gift cards to the same scammer. The Federal Trade Commission reports that the number of scams involving prepaid gift card or debit cards has greatly increased since the COVID-19 pandemic with scammers primarily targeting the elderly. No real business or government agency will ever insist you pay any debt with a gift card and anyone who demands to be paid with a gift card is a scammer. Read more on identifying gift card scams at the link below.
