Scammers push people to pay with iTunes gift cards

the scam happened to me as I was doing my taxes online; all of a sudden the pages were rolling and acting crazy and then of course someone who acted like they were with turbotax who I was using told me it would cost $250.00 on an iTunes card to fix my computer.

I was stupid I know but if it were not for trying to get my taxes done I may have thought about it more. A lot of pharmacies also have all types of gift cards including iTunes so that is where I went to get it because I go there all the time, they are my pharmacy, I felt they would be trustworthy because I was not going to do this online.

Well, fooled me; people that see me a lot; that take money from me for prescriptions, groceries, etc; people I trusted let me get the card and after it had been paid for told me about the scam and of course they were not allowed to give the money back even though the thief had not been given the codes or anything.

I have called people and told them they should have signs in the stores because they are not Apple Stores but just put a general warning about it happening to all cards and people would stop and think. Another thing is this, I am older, yes and I do not like it; I live on a pension, which comes from the government so probably any other old people that have been taken on this iTunes ride receive social security. I believe if that is true then it is worse then just fraudulent activity of people but of the government.

They could have given me my money but their bosses tell them no, they are not allowed once they ring it up. Well, they could have told me while we were at the register and I could have stopped them; so people in these pharmacies and other little places know and they just do not care who gets robbed of their money. I have not heard from the so called computer tech because I did not get the card online but went to the store instead. I thought I was being smarter that way; well, so much for that but he has not tried to contact me because he probably knows he got busted.

I believe the FBI should get in on this if for no other reason then a lot of money for these cards are coming from Seniors Pensions which is government money a lot; I am quite sure also welfare and that is illegal; stealing from the government. I still have this card and cannot get my money back for anything. I am stuck with a $250 piece of paper that says iTunes. I think there is more than one thief in this mess because all the places involved know. I do not go to iTunes sites; I am almost 70 years old but here I am just to let people know and that I hope that the companies will, on their own put a warning at the kiosk at the stores; or the government should get involved.

The other stores that are ripping off customers who are ill, and old and just want their computers to work right so they can finally get their taxes done do not deserve to lose their money. This could have been avoided up to the time I was at the register before it was rung up and if they had just said, "you know there is a scam going around" or something to that effect I know I would not have paid for that card. Shame on the thief, shame on Apple, and any other company that lets this go, shamed on the pharmacy for not telling me; shame on the head of the pharmacy for making their employees not tell people so that way they fear for their jobs, shame on everyone involved and shame on me for being stupid. tell everyone you know about this stuff; not just the young kids; all of the young people should warn their parents and grandparents too. you would be doing your family members a great service.

Sounds familiar! ITUNES card purchased to return the so called "good faith" money that is deposited into your bank account to show the FTC and FDIC you are a "good risk"! (I know sounds ridiculous but I fell for this even though I was very suspicious but also very desperate.) On September 2, 2016 the same thing you described happened to me. The result of this loan scam is my account has been closed by the bank and I was told I can never get another account for 5 years at this bank or any other! I presume the bank considers me either involved knowingly or something awful like that. I only tried to obtain a loan to pay some taxes that are due on my offer in compromise with the IRS before the OIC is placed in default.

I completed an online loan application which surprisingly required bank routing, account number, SSN, online banking information (this must be so the fraudster can deposit his fake checks through "mobile banking"!!! I have never in my life used mobile banking in the history of having my account so I was particularly surprised when I alerted my bank that I knew I had been scammed because customer service told me many checks had been deposited through mobile banking and a HOLD was placed.

I am very distraught over this and have placed an FTC complaint. I tried to put in a claim at the bank which I was never allowed to do since they closed the account and every banking department I phoned to explain this FRAUD told me "we can't help you as your account has been CLOSED by risk mgmt. I think this reaction is extreme as I tried to proactively alert the bank's FRAUD department of the goings on and gave them complete information the same day they scammed me.

EVERYONE - these loan scammers are several people, they all have accents and they are giving fake names of Eric, Kevin and David Cooper (who supposedly is the "wire transfer manager" of Advance America. The David Cooper person calls from some NY office while the Eric Foster person calls from a NJ number and each one is INDIAN. So, do you really think they would have american names like Eric and David - BEWARE these con artists are in a ring! They never respond to you after they get the ITUNES code ( the fake money they are making your account the repository for) and they are very particular about where they want you to purchase the ITUNES cards.

These ITUNE cards are only required because "you have a low "credit score" and have to show their company that they can "trust" you to repay their loan - this is called their VERIFICATION process!! After you "successfully" pass their verification process, your loan will be FUNDED in 25 minutes. (I KNOW- SOUNDS SO RIDICULOUS AS I AM TYPING THIS I CANNOT BELIEVE I FELL FOR THIS NONSENSE!!!)

If a scammer puts money in your account, and then reverses the deposit you will have to repay the money.