STAFF REPORTS
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PORTER — A Lockport Road woman is out $4,000 after falling victim to a gift card scam that’s only increasing in popularity despite numerous attempts to law enforcement to quell it.
According to the Niagara County Sheriff’s Office, patrol responded to the woman’s home on Wednesday where they learned that the victim had received a phone call on March 3 from a male stating that he was a Niagara Falls Police Officer, advising that her grandson was in jail. The woman told patrol that the male identified himself as Rob Morrisson, and that she would need $4,000 in Target gift cards to bail her grandson out of jail.
The woman went to Target in Niagara Falls and purchased two $2,000 gift cards. When she arrived home, the purported police officer called her again and she gave him the gift card numbers to “bail her grandson out of jail.”
The following day, however, the woman spoke to her grandson, who told her that he had not been in jail.
The woman called Target to report the incident and was told that one gift card had been used at a Target store in Davie, Fla. and the other was used at a Ponticia, Fla. Target. The woman was then directed to file a report with her local Sheriff’s Office.
Patrol attempted to call the suspect’s number back which said it had been disconnected. A suspect is unknown at this time.
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