A Trustee’s office received a call from a debtor who said he had been communicating with the Trustee through text messaging and that the Trustee advised the Debtor that he was $1,500.00 behind on his case.  The scammer proceeded to tell the Debtor he would need to send $1,500.00 in gift cards. The debtor then used cash to purchase 3 gift cards of $500.00 each, scratched off the gift card sticker and sent pictures of the front and back of the gift cards through text message to the scammers.

The Trustee’s office found out about this when the debtor called to verify that the office had received the $1,500.00 payment.  By that time, the scammers had all the information needed to spend the $1,500.00 for on-line purchases.

The debtor continued to communicate with the scammers (after the Trustee’s office told him not to) and asked them to prove it was the Trustee by giving him names of people who worked in the office.  The scammers dropped some names of attorneys that we think they may have gotten from an internet search for local bankruptcy attorneys.

The phone number given to the debtor is no longer in service - not a surprise.  Additionally, Trustee's believe the same kind of scam could be perpetrated by the scammers pretending to be a mortgage company or servicer and claiming that the mortgage is behind.

Please remember:  the Trustee will never text, call or email a Debtor asking for payments to be made by way of gift cards.  Trustee will only accept payments sent to the P.O. box or made electronically via ePay or the TFS system.  If you or your client ever receive this type of request, please report it to the proper authorities.