I know it’s true, because Elon texted me personally. Eat my dust suckers! Ha ha
Sadly, I read up on this and lots of people have gotten taken by this scam. Unbelievable and these vermin (the scammers) deserve to rot in hell.
Wait a minute… Elon texted me that *I* won that $300,000 and Tesla!
You’re trying to rob me!
You get a Tesla and $300,000! And you get a Tesla and $300,000! Everybody gets a Tesla and $300,000!!!
I was curious about how the scam worked, and it was basically luring the victim into a sense of confidence that the poster was really Musk and the prize was legit, and then asking for a gift card for “delivery fees” and then later for other alleged costs in order to deliver the prize.
Coverage of that and related scams here. I hate to link to Fox News but that was the first and best coverage that came up.
I work in a grocery store. Gift card scams like these are the bane of my existence. We practically have to quiz anyone buying a large amount of gift cards (or money orders or Western Union sends) to make sure they don’t think they’ve won a lottery or they’re buying a purebred puppy or renting an apartment sight unseen or their grandson needs bail money or their Facebook girlfriend in the Philippines has hospital bills or they’re about to be arrested if they don’t pay a fine.
Sounds awful. I am so grateful that you are doing it though. On behalf of all the grandparents who worked hard all their lives to save up that money: Thank you!
That is a horrible but sadly necessary service you provided there @smpati.
Sadly, many years ago I was employed to provide a live transcription service for those with significant hearing impairment. I’d take the ongoing conversation from the “outside” and provide a text-only version in real-time BUT we were required by federal law to present it exactly as it was provided to us, no matter the content (some minor exceptions if a life-threatening issue were to arrive, but not otherwise).
So I can sadly say on several occasions I was doing transcriptions of very obvious scams, whether gift cards, or attempts to gain access to the customer’s computer, credit cards, etc. One of the reasons I left!
Anyway, similar scams that have appeared via email for me (thankfully almost all going straight to the SPAM filter) claimed that the card was to pay for “verification”, a portion of the taxes, or one clever bastard, was to pay to prefill the vehicle registration to which they ALSO needed name, street address, phone number, DLN (!) and SSN (!!!). I thought that one was half-clever, because it was reasonable information given what the DMV asks for, grabbed future exploitive information, AND the immediate gift card cash-out.
Evil scum can still be clever.
Every time I sign onto my E-mail account, I have to start by deleting any E-mails that offer me a prize or a discount on some product or service. I don’t get texts, but if I did I would have to delete them in the same way. I get similar sorts of telephone calls, so I have to tell them each time to quit calling me. Ignore any television advertisement or YouTube video offering you anything free or at a discount. Follow the same rule and teach other people to follow the same rule.
That might explain things to some extent.
A few weeks ago I bought 8 gift cards for Christmas presents. I was told I could only buy 4 at a time and therefore it had to go through as two transactions.
Still doesn’t really make sense, I got the 8 gift cards, there was no questioning about who they were for it just took longer than it should to the probable annoyance of people behind me in the queue.
About 4 years ago I wanted to buy my niece a $1K gift card to Kohls. She was just settling into a new larger residence, had little spare income, & could spend that much on kitchen and generic housewares.
They refused to sell it to me. Would not take my longstanding Kohl’s credit card whose entire purchase and payment history was available to them. Would not take an ordinary Visa / Mastercard credit card. Would not take a stack of Benjamins. Simply would not do it.
All they would say is “might be fraud”. I asked what the largest gift card they’d sell me was. $100. Would they sell me 10? Nope. $100 doesn’t go far in a kitchen department. By then I was pissed, so I walked out. She got Benjamins instead and I hope she spent all of them elsewhere.
It’s a damned shame scammers, and the corporate reaction and overreaction to them, destroyed yet another useful feature of 21st century life.
It’s ironic that adding an EXTRA, very large prize doesn’t seem to dissuade scammees, but instead is more likely to suck them in. Yes, I am well aware that this is one way for the crooks to filter out the skeptics, but still seems kaa kaa koo koo to me that making it LESS plausible draws in MORE fish. Annnnd it isn’t like these fraudulent offers haven’t filtered down through all of society by this point.
An older thread where the senior citizen in question had been fully hooked, lined, and sinkered, which I periodically read just to blow my mind that someone could be so thoroughly suckered in that he had successfully gaslighted himself into believing that every element (the fake law firms, banks, lottery ticket, and even yes “girlfriend”) was authentic, to the extent that he was apparently convinced that he had met her and known her in person here in the States and that it really was his rightful inheritance he was trying to get:
The aged parent of a good friend of mine just ended up in a similar spot.
For lots of seniors, they slowly get senile and are trying like hell to hide that from family. And they get easier and easier to con and easier and easier for someone to browbeat. Eventually even a formerly carefully frugal and intelligent person has enough Swiss cheese holes in their mind that they’re as easy to con as a trusting child.
Speaking just for me, as someone likely to be aging alone with no younger family, I’m trying to cultivate an attitude of slowly growing distrust of my own thinking. And doing so well in advance of the need for it. Habitually “double-checking my work” is probably a useful habit.
Conversely, folks (like my ex-wife) who’re absolutely positively certain they never make mistakes are fundamentally unable to detect when they are.
OK, just take the “delivery fee” out of my $300,000.
(crickets)
At least the text didn’t say the Tesla would deliver itself.
Then you’d REALLY know it was a scam 
There’s always some mumbo-jumbo supposedly, alleged legal restriction that they can’t do that 
What’s second prize?
$300000 and two Teslas?
And if you call in to claim your prize in the next 10 minutes, we’ll throw in a Cybertruck for free. Just pay the delivery charges.
Where is Ron Popiel when we need him?
I forgot to include that every time I get mail, I start by throwing out any mail of this sort.
Well that turned me off. I need “And if you call in to claim your prize in the next 10 minutes, we won’t make you take the free Cybertruck.”
This needs to be broadcast in all media three times a day for a month: “No legitimate agency, governmental or otherwise, ever asks for gift cards as payment. If at the end of this month you still think that anyone asking for payment by gift card is legit, law enforcement agencies will not assist you in any way.”