Prepaid Debit Cards May Augment Bank Accounts

by Janet Kim

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – A scam has been seeing a spike in the Mid-State, using popular un-paid credit cards.

The thieves are making their victims believe they are from legitimate entities, like the Nashville Electric Service or law enforcement agencies.

Officials with the Metro Nashville Police said there have been 10 to 20 victims in Nashville already this year, some who have lost hundreds even thousands of dollars through this MoneyPak scam.

The thieves reach out to victims by e-mail or phone. They are able to mask their numbers so the victim’s caller ID will actually show it’s coming from some of the legitimate agencies.

“So once you came to your sense, you were like wow, I can’t believe something like this really happened, but it really happened,” said Quarren Jones, who fell victim after he was told issues with his student loan could be resolved if he paid $ 400.

The thieves then tell the victims they owe money to these agencies, in the form of a MoneyPak, which is a service used to reload prepaid debit cards.

The scam a…………………continues on NewsChannel5.com