Toronto Police Warn Of 'Fake' Domino's Drivers In Debit Card Scam & Here's How It Happens
Keep your cards close.
Toronto Police Car. Right: Domino's Pizza store.
The latest scam tactic in Toronto has caught the attention of the Toronto Police Service, and they're sounding the alarm.
The sham involves scammers posing as Domino's pizza delivery drivers to trick unsuspecting victims into handing over their debit cards and PIN numbers, and the tactics are strikingly similar to the notorious Toronto taxi scams.
The police report that this scam is taking place in large retail store parking lots, and they're urging the public to be vigilant.
Here's how it works: police say the scammers use a dark-coloured vehicle with a Domino's Pizza sign, and a woman poses as a customer while a man poses as a delivery driver.
The "customer" approaches the victim and asks for help paying for the pizza delivery fee with a debit card because the "driver" doesn't accept cash.
If the victim agrees, they go over to the scammer's car and hand over their debit card and enter their PIN into a fake card reader. Once the transaction goes through, the scammers give the victim a fake bank card that looks like their own, and the victim receives cash from the female scammer before leaving.
Unfortunately, the scammers now have the victim's debit card and can use the PIN to make any number of purchases or withdrawals.
One Reddit user recently shared their experience of almost falling victim to this scam at CF Fairview Mall, and it was a near miss.
They were able to evade the scam by noticing a distorted license plate and when the scammer told them they didn't accept credit cards or tap transactions.
They informed the driver that they didn't have their debit card and quickly left the scene.
"Don't hand in your debit card to anyone, and be extremely cautious with your PIN," the Reddit user said in their post.
The Toronto Police Service echoes this advice and also advises general skepticism over all types of debit and credit transactions.
"Most legitimate delivery services accept cash, so if someone tries to convince you otherwise, this a red flag that this may be a scam," they wrote in a release.
This article's cover image was used for illustrative purposes only.