“There was a delivery and I discovered it was a laptop MacBook Pro It is worth about $4,900. “We didn't ask for it, and it had someone else's name on it, but it was our address,” Etobicoke resident Dennis Baillargeon explained.
This text is a translationCTV News article.
Ms. Baillargeon said that after the laptop was delivered to their home, her husband noticed that they were waiting for payment to their Costco account, and shortly after, someone came to their door.
“The Uber driver said he had a request to pick up a package that was sent to the wrong address, and I said you can’t get that package because we have to pay $5,000 for it,” Ms. Baillargeon continued.
Concerned, the couple called Costco and the police. It appears that someone had ordered the package, which contained the couple's credit card information, through their Costco account, and once the package was delivered, the thieves intended to take it, but Ms. Baillargeon brought it inside before they could do so.
“They were waiting hoping no one would come home to steal the package, and I think our house was under surveillance,” Ms. Baillargeon said.
Claudio Poppa, a cybersecurity expert, says this is a new version of an old scam. It used to be that thieves could steal a credit card and ship packages almost anywhere, but today it's much more difficult, which is why they ship packages to addresses associated with stolen credit card information.
“The problem with fraud is that in most cases you never know how the financial information was stolen,” Poppa said.
Formerly known as delivery or drop shipping fraud, it is now called “double-decker fraud” because thieves now have to compromise two sources of information to make it work.
“Before, we were talking about drop shipping fraud, but today we are talking about two-level fraud, simply because the thieves take the identity element and the financial information element and put them together to carry out the fraud,” Mr. Buba explained.
In the case of the laptop, Costco took it back and Baillargeon didn't have to pay a fee, but she wants to warn others if a strange package shows up at their door.
“People should know that you should never give a package to someone with someone else's name, even if it has your address,” Ms. Baillargeon warned.
It is important to return packages as quickly as possible and use different passwords for your different accounts in case one account is compromised.
Always monitor your bank accounts and credit card statements for any suspicious activity.
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