GENEVA —
A Geneva convenience store is out $1,009.82 on Monday after a smooth-talking caller needed help activating fraudulent pre-paid money card.
Sgt. Joseph Webb was called to the Circle K convenience store on Route 20 at 2 a.m. after a newly-hired clerk realized he had been bamboozled.
“The unknown man called with a ‘problem with the system,’” Webb said. “He told the clerk to please activate a Green Dot Money Pak reloadable card. The male gave the clerk a series of (phone and serial) numbers and the clerk did as he was instructed.”
Webb said the minute the clerk hung up with the customer, a representative with the company that verifies the activation of the cards called.
“He advised the clerk that the transaction he had just produced was over the credit limit,” Webb said.
The cards, worth $499.96 each plus the activation fee, are the latest in a three-week long scam that began in Ashtabula, Webb discovered.
Managers at Circle K stores across the region were notified of the scam via corporate memo last week, but that hasn’t stopped the scammer from trying, Webb said.
“I contacted the manager of the Circle K store (at routes 54 and 534) and she said she had received a similar call from a man ‘with a very smooth delivery,’ telling her that there was a problem with the system and he needed her to correct the problem,” Webb said. “He said she would need to enter the cards into the system for him.”
Webb said the manager, aware of the scam, hung up on the caller.
Webb said the clerks never got the name of the man, so the case has been closed unless new information surfaces.
Anyone with information about the caller should call the Geneva Police Department (466-1111).
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