Facebook scammer sends people to random East Grand Forks home to pickup items – InForum

EAST GRAND FORKS — There’s a new scam going around for online shoppers that police have never heard of or dealt with.

Kathryn Gunderson was caught off guard around 9:30 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 15 , when she caught a man and a woman peeking into her home at the front door.

“And I said through the door, hello? She said is your name Gwen? I said no,” recalled Gunderson.

The woman’s demeanor quickly changed, and said a person is using Gunderson’s address to scam people.

That’s when the light went off in Gunderson’s head. It explained another strange encounter at the door earlier in the day around noon. Two men were there with a truck.

She said they were at her house to pickup furniture, but that she didn’t have any furniture.

The night time visit put some fear into Gunderson.

“They looked a little angry, because they were out some money. So I felt uncomfortable because I had these people who were scammed standing on my porch, and I am worried they think I may be part of it,” she said.

“Unfortunately, we do take a variety of these reports,” said Andy Stein, Grand Forks police lieutenant.

However, Grand Forks and East Grand Forks police say they’ve never dealt with a scam like this. They say if this happens to you, worry about the money first, then call the police.

“If it’s a wire transfer, whether that’s Cashapp, Paypal, Venmo, all those organizations have a link you can go to and report fraud and that really should be your first step,” Stein said.

Gunderson says she never saw the post, and the victims never gave her any details.

“Very scary, I had trouble sleeping last night thinking people were going to keep showing up at my house,” she said.

Gunderson says she’s done it before, transferred money to someone once knowing their address feeling she could trust them. Never again she says.

“It’s a warning to everyone, don’t pay for something over Facebook until you physically see it and have it in your hands,” she warned.

East Grand Forks police say nobody has filed a report with them about the scam, and would like to hear from the people who showed up at Gunderson’s house.