New scam with reloadable debit cards hits Helper


5 photos
Save Story
Leer en español

Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes

This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.

SALT LAKE CITY — No matter how safe your community might be, scammers can still find you.

Brenda Zobell has lived in Helper, population about 2,000, for the past six years.

“It’s real safe. It’s real nice too,” said Zobell.

She never had any problems until recently when she got a call from a blocked phone number. The person on the other end knew her name, address and age, and the caller told Zobell she had won a $9,000 grant from the U.S. government, just for being a good citizen.

“You have no criminal background, you pay your bills on time, you do everything right and that’s why you were chosen,' " Zobell said the caller told her. “I said, 'There’s a catch to this. You’re trying to punk me, aren’t you?' And he says, 'No, this is real, it’s true.”

But there was a catch. The caller told Zobell that to get her money, she had to buy a Green Dot MoneyPak card. It’s a reloadable debit card that scam artists love because it's more convenient than a money wire and just as untraceable.

The caller told Zobell to put $350 on the card and give him the account number, then he would put her $9,000 winnings on it. Zobell wasn’t falling for it.

“I knew it was a scam because it sounded too good,” said Zobell.

When Zobell said she didn’t have any money, the caller told her to ask her family or sell her personal belongings to come up with the $350. She refused and called the KSL Investigators.

We tried calling the same number Zobell was given, but there was no answer. We even tried to buy a Green Dot card from one of the only gas stations in town but couldn’t find one. It seemed the caller didn’t do his homework on Helper.

“We unfortunately go through times where we’ll get three and four calls in a week on this same thing,” said Det. Stephen Boyer with the Helper Police Department.

He said this isn’t the first time tiny Helper has been hit by scammers.

“The Jamaicans for a while, for a month they hit us solid,” Boyer said. “They found our ZIP code.”

As for Zobell, the one thing she learned is that even in a small town, the bad guys are only a phone call away.

Scammers can find you through Internet searches or by randomly dialing your number. So if you get a suspicious offer over the phone, through the mail or by email, remember a few things:

  • The government does not require payment to receive federal grants.
  • If a check unexpectedly shows up in your mailbox, throw it away.
  • If you have a Green Dot MoneyPak card or any reloadable debit card, never give out the account number to someone you don’t know.

Photos

Related stories

Most recent Utah stories

Related topics

Utah
Debbie Dujanovic and Tania Mashburn

    STAY IN THE KNOW

    Get informative articles and interesting stories delivered to your inbox weekly. Subscribe to the KSL.com Trending 5.
    By subscribing, you acknowledge and agree to KSL.com's Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.

    KSL Weather Forecast