Harry McCandless has warned that the problem is becoming more ‘alarmingly common’
A UK security expert from a top supermarket has been praised for his efforts in helping customers fend off mobile phone scammers. Harry McCandless, who leads the security team at an Asda supermarket in Newtownards, has reported spotting 10 to 15 potential scam victims over the last six months.
“We’re seeing people receive messages on social media platforms from someone who pretends to be famous. Or it could be someone pretending to be in a relationship with them, someone they’ve never met,” he said.
“Once they’ve gained this person’s trust, they’ll say any number of things – that their career is in trouble or they need help for some other reason. We’ve seen the messages.
“We’ve gone through them with our customers, some of whom have been quite vulnerable in one way or another, and they’re awful.” Harry, 48, has identified a prevalent scam where individuals are duped into purchasing gift cards in the store and then sharing the barcodes with the fraudsters via social media, reports Belfast Live.
He said: “The amounts aren’t small: these customers could be spending a couple of hundred on gift cards, even more. In most cases, we can spot it quite quickly simply because the amount people are spending is a red flag.
“Once we speak to them, we’re often able to chat through the details of the scam and advise them to go to the police. It can be very upsetting for some to accept they’ve been tricked because they’ve become emotionally involved with the scammer – or the person they thought they were speaking to.
“But for me, it’s a rewarding thing to do. In one case, a customer we spoke to retrieved around £1,000 following intervention from the police, while another, who believed he was spending £750 on gift cards for a so-called ‘girlfriend’ in Canada, stopped just short of losing all that money because we felt uncomfortable with that amount, and once we’d spoken to him it became clear this was a scam. He later came back and thanked us.
“Something like this would have been unheard of a few years ago, but it’s become alarmingly common. We’re more than happy to step in and advise when we can if something doesn’t feel right for our customers. That’s what we’re here for.”
Andrew Alderdice, General Store Manager at the Asda in Newtownards in County Down, Northern Ireland, praised Harry for the work he has done, saying: “We have fantastic colleagues right across our store who care about our customers. Harry just goes to prove this, stepping in and providing great on the ground support – and pointing them to the police if necessary.
“I’ve witnessed Harry first hand talking to customers about the possibility they may have been scammed, with customers then returning to thank him. We’re incredibly proud of him. Well done Harry!”
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