Phone scammer pretending to be McDonald's CEO nearly cons Pennsylvania restaurant out of thousands: report

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The CEO of a company like McDonald's probably isn't going to ask for gift cards from their own restaurants.

These days, most people know to be aware of phone scammers trying to swindle money out of them. Unfortunately, there are still individuals out there who are still taken advantage of by these cons and can sometimes lose a lot of money.

A McDonald’s in Pennsylvania was reportedly almost scammed out of thousands of dollars after someone called in a claimed to be the company’s CEO. (iStock)

For example, a McDonald’s in Pennsylvania was reportedly almost scammed out of thousands of dollars after someone called in a claimed to be the company’s CEO. The incident occurred at a McDonald’s in Milesburg, Penn. on Friday, WJAC TV reports. According to reports, an unknown individual called the restaurant and claimed to be the company’s CEO/CFO.

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This person allegedly instructed one of the managers to take money from the restaurant and use it to buy gift cards from a nearby gas station convenience store. The caller apparently asked the manager to provide them with the gift cards’ pin numbers over the phone, which would have granted them access to the funds on each card.

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The manager reportedly purchased $4,000 worth of gift cards before contacting authorities. The pin number was not provided to the fake CEO and the transactions were reportedly canceled, with the money returned to the restaurant.

While most scammers won’t claim to be the CEO of a major corporation, it is common for them to ask their victims to purchase gift cards to pay off some sort of debt. Phone scammers will sometimes pretend to be employees of the IRS or some other government agency. These scammers will also claim that law enforcement is on the way to arrest the victim, although this is never true.

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According to the IRS, employees for the organization will never demand payment over the phone or require people to make payments through a prepaid gift or debit card. Instead, the IRS instructs the public to hang up on scammers immediately and report the call to the department.