Orange City, Iowa — There’s a new scam rearing its head that the Sioux County Sheriff’s Office wants to warn people about.
It’s being called the “Distract and Dash” scam. Sioux County Sheriff Jamie Van Voorst tells us about it.
The reason Van Voorst brings up having conversations is that’s a key part of the scam. The other part is that they try to separate the person from their purse or wallet. He explains.
Van Voorst says often the suspects have stolen a club store card and will then leave that store and go to the club store and use the membership entry card and credit cards to purchase gift cards. Then, they’ll purchase merchandise on the gift cards, which is very hard to trace. Sometimes, those illegal purchases can be thousands of dollars. He says often, the unsuspecting shopper-victim does not discover the crime happened until they go to check out, which, in some cases can be quite a while after the crime.
He says while it’s not impossible for investigators to trace these purchases, it is complex and requires a large amount of time. There is also frequently an inconvenience placed on the original shopper as they work through the issue with credit card companies and law enforcement.
He gives us some tips.
He reminds us that we live in a low-crime area, and scammers are starting to catch on to that, which makes us extra vulnerable to scams, since we are not necessarily always expecting nefarious activity. Also, he says in northwest Iowa people are friendly and don’t want to ignore others, but he says don’t forget — if you don’t recognize someone, while the Sheriff’s Office wouldn’t advocate rudeness, he reminds us that we don’t have to speak with strangers.
