A elderly woman credits a course she took on fraud for not being scammed in Cobourg on Saturday, August 17, 2019.
The scam happens when suspects watch a person punch in their personal identification number as they are paying for items at a store with a debit card.
Suspects then usually drop a $20 stating it was the victims money, which the victim then places in their wallet.
When the victim leaves the store, they are approached by a suspect/s who demand the money back and unbeknownst to the victim, they also take the debit card and quickly withdraw sums of money from the victims account.
On Saturday, seventy-one-year-old Nellie Marciano was visiting Shoppers Drug Mart to purchase a few items.
Speaking to Today’s Northumberland, Marciano tried to go through the self serve area at approximately 12:20 p.m., but when the sale price wasn’t being registered she went to the lone cashier working.
”I noticed these two men were standing back a little bit.”
Marciano paid with a debit card, and before the cashier had even finished her transaction one of the men was close by asking the cashier to buy lottery tickets.
“The cashier said he would be right with them and then one of them said I dropped $20.”
“Maybe I did, I don’t know.”
Marciano put her debit card away and picked up the $20 exiting the store, going to her vehicle.
“I went to my car with my stuff and I had the trunk open and one of the men came and said it was his $20 bill.”
“I didn’t know and I didn’t want to be a thief.”
Marciano remembers the man didn’t speak very good English with possibly a Russian accent.
What may have saved the elderly woman from the fraud is her debit cards are in a separate area from her money that is in her wallet.
She gave them men the $20 and walked away.
Immediately Marciano thought it was suspicious and checked her bank account.
She notified Shoppers and went home and searched the net for similar occurrences.
Marciano phoned Cobourg Police, but after waiting for over 15-minutes she hung up. (Today’s Northumberland helped get her in touch with police who took a statement from her)
Remembering back seeing the two men by the cashier, “I kind of found it strange they were hanging back, I thought they may have been waiting for an older person like me.”
Prior to moving to Cobourg recently, Marciano took a course on fraud by the OPP and credits that for making her aware of scams.
“There is all kinds of scams, especially with seniors.”
Cobourg Police are investigating.
It is similar to a scam that happened in January at Walmart in Cobourg where a person had $1,600 taken out of his account within minutes.
Author: Pete Fisher
Has been a photojournalist for over 30-years and have been honoured to win numerous awards for photography and writing over the years. Best selling author for the book Highway of Heroes - True Patriot Love
