Police Warn of Walmart Phone Scam

Merrimack Police Community Service Officer Rob Kelleher sent out the following e-mail yesterday warning residents of a new phone scam that came to his attention recently.

Kelleher said this was the first time he'd heard of this scam, but wanted to let people know to be vigilant. "The more info we share the better off our community will be," Kelleher said.

I just had a resident call reporting what sounds like a slight (deviation) to the traditional “lottery” scams.  He said the caller was a female who spoke good English but with a Pakistani/Indian accent. This caller told him that he was eligible to receive a $100 Walmart gift card, and all he had to do was provide a credit card number, which they would charge $3 as a processing fee. Thankfully, he declined to provide his credit card information to them, but it sounds like she pressed hard on several occasions trying to get him to provide this information. The call apparently came up with an 845 area code. A quick internet search shows this as an unlisted VOiP Line registered in Poughkeepsie, N.Y.  The 'target' called Walmart, who denied any promotions of this type.

Please do not hesitate to call the Police Department if you have any questions where something is a scam or not. Its always better to talk to someone before than to be scammed!"