O’Brien County, Iowa — There’s apparently a new twist on an old scam being tried in the area these days.
An O’Brien County resident tells KIWA that he received a telephone call from someone who told him they were with the National Health Institute, and that he was one of fifteen-hundred people to be chosen to receive a nine-thousand-dollar grant.
The caller told the man that he should go to a big box store, and buy a Google Play Card in a specified amount, then call them back and give them the Google Play Card information so they could load the nine-thousand-dollar grant to the Google Play Card.
The intended scam victim tells KIWA that there were three things that raised red flags for him. The first was that grants are awarded to individuals or entities that have applied for a grant. This gentleman had not. Red flag number two, grant recipients normally aren’t contacted by phone. And finally, the HUGE red flag was that he had to get a Google Play Card valued at a certain amount before the grant could be awarded.
This gentleman dodged a scammer’s bullet. He said he’s hopeful that by sharing his story he can help others in the area avoid being fleeced in this scam, as well.
