Authorities warn of pre-paid gift card scam

Waterloo, IA – Over the last few weeks, the Waterloo Police Department has been seeing a huge increase in victims being scammed out of pre-paid gift cards.

According to the police officials, the scammers are spoofing law enforcement telephone numbers, so it appears the phone call is actually from a legitimate law enforcement phone number. 

Ladies and gentlemen, you should never give personal information or agree to pay anything over the phone, especially when being threatened by a caller.

Authorities do not accept or demand payment via any type of pre-paid gift card.

When in doubt hang up and call back to an official number to verify.

These scammers can be extremely convincing – by providing personal data about the victim – and then threatening to arrest you if you do not pay them immediately. 

More information here.

This story will be updated as new information become available.