Thursday, March 28, 2024
March 28, 2024

Islander warns of Reader’s Digest scam

A Salt Spring woman who foiled an attempted scam wants other islanders to be warned and wary.

Brinkworthy Place resident Betty Taylor received a phone call Monday from a man purporting to represent Reader’s Digest in Burlington, Ont. The man said Taylor had won a $25-million Reader’s Digest prize and needed to provide banking information to him in order to receive the money.

When Taylor said she wanted to contact her local RCMP detachment to see if the offer was a fraud, the caller hung up. The phone number was 876-572-8339.

While Reader’s Digest does run a sweepstakes program, people can’t win it if they don’t enter, and no financial information or advances would be required to accept a prize.

The Driftwood also heard reports of people receiving phone calls allegedly from Revenue Canada threatening people with imminent arrest if they did not return the call. The phone number used was 289-919-5466. This is also a scam and should be ignored.

The Salt Spring RCMP detachment cannot investigate scam incidents like these. See the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre website for advice and information about scams.

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