Don’t throw away your junk mail. It might be your stimulus money on a debit card
The Internal Revenue Service is mailing debit cards loaded with coronavirus stimulus funds to millions of Americans, but some are confusing them for junk mail and scams.
About four million Economic Impact Payment cards are being sent instead of checks to people who don’t have bank account info shared with the IRS, McClatchy News reported.
Some who have received them say the nondescript envelope and the Visa card bearing the name of an unfamiliar bank immediately struck them as junk, outlets report.
The envelopes are from Money Network Cardholder Services, according to the IRS. On the back of the card will be the logo for MetaBank, the issuing bank chosen by the IRS.
Texas woman Vicki Wade was so certain the $1,200 delivery was spam, she almost threw it away, KCEN reported.
“At first glance you would throw it away. You would. Especially if Money Network is not your bank. It’s not my bank and no one I do business with,” she told the outlet.
Houston resident David Starr had never heard of MetaBank, and was expecting his $1,200 in the form of a check, not a card, he told CNN, adding that he also nearly threw it away.
“I became confused. I mean here comes this card that I am not expecting, from a bank I never heard of, MetaBank, and it just felt like a complete scam,” Starr told the outlet. “I was actually quite angry about it.”
Officials in multiple states report they’re getting a lot of complaints and questions about the cards.
The Better Business Bureau of North Alabama says area residents are calling about “unmarked envelopes” claiming to be stimulus money, according to WHNT.
In Iowa, the state attorney general’s office is hearing similar concerns, The Des Moines Register reported.
“We’re getting a lot of calls from Iowans confused about the EIP cards that are arriving in the mail. A lot of people think this is a scam. It’s not, at least not the cards in the attached image,” Lynn Hicks, a spokesman for Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller, said.
According to the Money Network, lost cards can be replaced by calling the customer service line 1-800-240-8100.
