Chinese fraudsters try to lure victims by leaving ‘credit cards’ lying in the street
People told by a call centre there is a huge amount of cash on the cards, but they first have to pay off ‘money owed’
Confidence tricksters in northern China have tried to cheat people out of money by leaving credit cards lying in the road with their PIN numbers written in an envelope, with the promise of a huge amount of cash to withdraw, a news website reported.
People finding the cards in Zhengzhou in Henan province are told to ring a call centre and are informed they can withdraw up to 300,00 yuan (HK$380,00) on it, but first have to clear the 5,000 yuan owed on previous withdrawals, the news website Thepaper.cn reported.
A manager at an Agricultural Bank of China branch in Zhengzhou was quoted as saying the fake credit cards were relatively easy to spot as they were rougher and softer than real ones.
The service centre’s phone number was also wrong, the manager said.
The report did not say how many people had been duped in the scam.
A fraud expert, who was not named, was quoted as saying that the scam was similar to schemes where people are told they have won the lottery, but have to pay a tax bill before picking up the cash.