FRAUDULENT CREDIT CARD SCAM Targeting Dealers Attending Major Coin Shows

[The Penny Lady]

As Chair of the ANA Dealer Relations Committee, I have been asked to pass on this message which looks like it began with the FUN show but has the possibility of affecting all major coin shows. Please pass this on to anyone you think it may affect. Thank you!

 

From Cindy Wibker, Bourse Coordinator for the FUN show: One of our FUN coin dealers in Florida received an interesting (and dangerous) phone call recently. Someone called him and said that the bourse fees for Summer FUN were increasing and the hotel rates had increased, and asked for his credit card information to charge the difference. Nothing involving FUN has increased, and thankfully the dealer was alert and didn't give them any credit card information. It appears the crooks are getting quite sophisticated now. In addition to the hotel scammers who call our dealers and offer hotel rooms at lower rates, we now have this to contend with. The hotel scammers are usually from the Las Vegas area, they do not have any hotel rooms, and the fine print in their contract allows them to charge your credit card for the room if they acquire one on your behalf, and then the hotel will also charge your credit card when you depart - i.e., double billing.

 

Our Florida dealer asked for the phone number of the person calling so he could check on this and call them back. He was given 877-312-7831 extension 303. I have not tried to call this number.

 

Feel free to pass this information along to everyone on your Numismatic Crime Information list. If FUN has any issues or questions about your bourse space, I will contact the dealers directly. If there is an issue with the hotel rooms booked, someone from the FUN housing bureau in Baltimore or Darcy will contact the dealers directly, but they will never ask for credit card information.

 

 

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[MarkVIIIMarc]

Google says that number is a scam.

 

Perhaps some day in the future we'll be able to prosecute these scam artists once pot is legal. Or maybe then our law enforcement will have less time, who knows.

[CoinZip]

I received a similar call today, most likely the same company.

 

The phone number was 702-800-5918

 

 

I did a reverse phone lookup

 

 

 

Then did a google search for the company associated with the number.

 

 

[RWB]

This has been around a long time for large conventions. Looks like the crooks are hunting smaller fish.