Police are calling this a "clever" scam

The Winneshiek County Sheriff's Department issues numerous warnings about credit card scams.  But their latest warning is a little stronger than normal, because of what they're calling a "clever": scheme.

A woman received a phone call stating that there was a package for her that would arrive in roughly one hour.  A uniformed delivery man arrived on time with a beautiful basket of flowers and a bottle of wine.  The deliveryman stated that because the gift contained alcohol, there was a small delivery charge as proof that he had actually delivered the package to an adult.

When the recipient tried to pay with cash, he stated the delivery company required a debit card or credit card.  When she gave the card to the deliveryman and he swiped the card, he was able to later create dummy credit cards that he used to withdraw over $4,000 from the woman's account.

The Winneshiek County Sheriff's Department is again reminding the public to never give out credit card or debit card information when you have not initiated the purchase.