Credit: Hadlee Simons / Android Authority
- A growing street phone scam in New York City is defrauding victims of significant sums of money, with over $76,000 stolen last year.
- Criminals request a seemingly legitimate donation via transfer, after which they claim it didn’t go through.
- Offering to assist, the perpetrator takes the victim’s phone and transfers a large amount of cash to a different account.
It’s worth being aware of the latest methods scammers are using to part people with their money, and a simple yet novel street phone scam appears to be on the rise in New York City. In a form of digital mugging, the thieves convince people on the street to hand over their phones so that the perpetrator can transfer funds out of the victim’s account.
As detailed in Gothamist reporting, police officers in the SoHo area of the city have been handing out fliers to raise awareness of how the scam is typically performed. The scammer approaches the victim on the street or in a park and requests a donation, posing as a legitimate fundraiser for a sports team, school, or non-profit.