Your Cable Company Will Not Ask You To Make Your Payment At A Gas Station

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Some scams are so outrageously stupid, we have a hard time believing anyone falls for them. But scammers would pull these obvious tricks if they didn’t work at least some of the time.

According to the Chicopee, MA, police department, a person in neighboring Holyoke complained that they had received a call from someone identifying himself as “Louis M” and offering a great deal on Comcast cable service.

First problem with this offer: Comcast doesn’t serve this particular area. So even if Louis could offer someone a great deal, it would be for someone in another town.

Then things get even stranger. To get this good deal, the person only needs to bring $400 — on a prepaid debit card, of course — to the address provided by Louis. A quick check of that location shows that it’s not a Comcast office, or even a home, but a random Hess Express location.

The police say they tried calling the number, but the man who answered hung up on them.

While the Chicopee incident is definitely a ruse to trick you out of your money, it’s not unheard of for people with an inside hookup at a cable company to illegally sell discounted pay-TV access on their own.

Back in 2012, police busted a ring of scammers who had cheated Comcast out of more than $2 million by illegally giving pay-TV service to nearly 6,000 customers. Those people paid upwards of $200 each to have someone inside a Comcast office (in my hometown, no less) put permanent discounts on their accounts.

[via WWLP-TV]

by Chris Morran via Consumerist