From The Plain Dealer
The Plain Dealer is alerting people who place classified ads about a scam in which someone posing as a newspaper employee contacts them to request credit card information.
Similar scams have been reported by publications around the country, according to Rob Ritterbusch, the Plain Dealer’s vice president of classified advertising. It appears to be new to Northeast Ohio.
The scam typically works like this: Once a classified ad runs online, someone posing as an ad representative contacts the advertiser to claim his initial form of payment was rejected. The caller asks for alternative credit card information.
One Moreland Hills woman who received a scam call last month said someone in Silver Spring, Md., tried to order $1,700 worth of merchandise using her credit card the same day. The scam attempt was thwarted when the retailer contacted her to verify the order.
