Businesswoman warns others of scam attempt

A Kalispell businesswoman wants others to know about a scam she ran into this month.

Laurie Daugharty of Montana Pharmaceutical Services Inc. didn't fall for the scheme, which she says involves a telephone device for the deaf, stolen credit card numbers, and Nigeria.

Nigerian scams are almost a cliche in the Internet world of fraud, where nearly everyone with a computer has gotten a bogus plea to help a Nigerian family flee the country with secured funds.

Daugharty's story is different, but she said she has heard from others who have been contacted in the same way.

She is a licensed pharmacist, running a closed-door pharmacy.

On June 15, she was called by a man identifying himself as a doctor. Calling with a translator through a telephone device for the deaf, he wanted 30 stethoscopes sent immediately. He was specific on what he wanted - Littman Classic II models, shipped to a town called Jamaica in New York. He also was interested in buying blood-pressure cuffs.

Daugharty faxed him an order form and accepted the terms that included shipping costs and the sale price. He signed the order and gave two Visa credit-card numbers for payment.

Then Daugharty received an anonymous call warning her that the credit cards were stolen and she was being scammed. The caller told her to research "scams through relay" on the Internet and she did. She read about schemes similar to the order she just took.

She decided not to process the order. She called Visa and the FBI. They were no help, she said, but the credit-card company urged her to try to get more credit-card numbers.

She contacted the man who placed the order and told him the credit cards were declined. He supplied two more, using a decidedly unprofessional e-mail address through Yahoo!.

The credit-card numbers also were a tip-off, she said. The first three of four clusters of numbers were identical, with only the last four digits changing. The odds of that happening legitimately are almost nonexistent, Daugharty learned.

She and the man talked again through a relay system and the man insisted that he wanted the stethoscopes shipped immediately. Now the shipping address changed to an address in Nigeria.

On Friday, Daugharty was hoping to coax a few more credit-card numbers from the man. She will report the numbers to the credit-card company and let them sort out what to do if they are stolen.

She is out the shipping costs and will have to pay a restocking fee when she returns the stethoscopes she ordered.

She said she thinks the man scams merchandise using stolen credit card numbers and then sells the items on eBay or through other outlets, she said.

She said a commercial pharmacy in Kalispell may also have been targeted, as well as someone she knows who sells jewelry in Montana.

"We'd like the community to know" about the scam, she said. "It's happening here and now in Kalispell."

Reporter Chery Sabol may be reached at 758-4441 or by e-mail at csabol@dailyinterlake.com