‘Meet me in Walmart parking lot’: Scam making rounds

It may sound rather amateur, but a local resident is concerned some people may fall for a phone scam making the rounds in Vernon.

Gary Garbutt said he received a call Tuesday from someone saying he had won $5 million from Readers Digest, but first had to take a cheque for $650 to the Walmart parking lot and give it to a person there.

“And meet Joe, or whatever his name was. At which point, I said ‘Give me the cheque for $5 million and I’ll give you the 650 bucks’ and hung up,” Garbutt told Vernon Matters.

Garbutt didn’t fall for it, but he feels some seniors may be vulnerable.

“To an elderly person, they might be down there. I don’t know,” he said.

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Garbutt said he’s passing on the incident because he gets “pissed off” with those types of calls.

“I should have played him a little bit longer to get more information,” Garbutt said, adding he feels the con man may be travelling from town to town.

“That was unusual to say ‘Meet me in the Walmart parking lot.’ That one kind of spooked me. It’s just amazing, with these scams, how many people get bit,” he said.