Gift Card Scam

[Shangri-laschild]

When I was working at the gas station, I had a guy who came in and brought a bunch of stuff up to the counter. He also wanted a gift card for $100. He pulled one of the blank cards off the display and I put the money on it, lay it on the counter with his stuff, and run his credit card. It doesn't go through. So he says, never mind, I'll send someone in later with a different card, and he leaves.

I finish my line and go to deactivate his card that he left. There's no money on it. Which is weird because I remember putting the money on it and have the recipt to prove it, but my coworker had the same issue last night with the machine, so I figure that it's screwing up. A couple minutes later, I do a mental double take. Take another look at the card. Compare it to the reciept I have. Two different card numbers. He switched cards on me. Turns out he did the same thing to the guy last night.

Showed my assistant who looked it up. Luckily our poorly pointed cameras actually managed to catch everything. Turns out he was cashing them in for money orders. Guy already had a police file though and they caught him trying another scam at the mall later that week.



Edit - I do realize that I kind of brought this on myself by not hanging onto the card and by activating it as early as I did. Was more pissed at being scammed by a regular and letting myself fall for it.

[ReverendBSB]

Thats why many stores will only allow gift cards to be paid for with cash. Another good precaution is to only activate the card after payment has been made.

[Shengirl]

God yeah. I don't let those suckers out of my HAND until they've been paid for. However, at our store, you can only pay cash for them, and they have to be rung up at customer service. We really don't trust the lowlifes around here to not scam our poor cashiers. Then again, having a separate CS desk is a luxury a gas station doesn't have.

Not to say that YOU're naive or stupid, but with gas stations often being run by 1-2 people at a time, with no supervisor about, I assume there there are times where someone fairly new is left alone. And the only way newbies or even old lifers can learn is by experiences like these, unfortunately. Therefore, I'm really glad the cops got this one.

[purplecat41877]

Where I work, we're supposed to scan gift cards last. When the transaction is complete, the customer gets the gift cards.

[Andara Bledin]

Oh, yeah.

Gift card scams are so common and plentiful, that there's really no sane reason to ever "load" them until after payment has been made.

^-.-^

[BookstoreEscapee]

Oh, yeah.

Gift card scams are so common and plentiful, that there's really no sane reason to ever "load" them until after payment has been made.

^-.-^

Well, where I worked, you had to scan the gift card first, and then take the payment. But it authorizes the gift card when you press any payment key, but before the payment goes through, so if the transaction isn't finished the card won't load. And if you cancel the transaction after the fact it will also reverse any gift cards that were on it. And if you cancel the transaction in the middle the card won't actually load or will be reversed if the authorization already went through. So that scam wouldn't work there anyway.

[aurelemsrealm]

Our register system is set up so that a card can't be authorized until after payment. Customers can pay in cash, check, or credit card for them, but the activation sequence will not happen until after payment. I had a customer once ask me not to activate a new card after his payment had been accepted. I really didn't know if there was a way around it, and I didn't care. I told him that he could purchase it later if he wanted to activate it later, and handed his money back to him. He started in with, "The others have done it before......." line. I simply pointed at my name tag, "I'm not one of them. I don't care."

He finally relented after proceeding to tell me that it could be done because he's done it before. Of course, I just shrugged, "It's not happening that way today, though. I know how the procedure I follow works, and that's how it's going to work." So, he said he still wanted the card. Okay, I took his payment again, then activated the card and gave him the receipt. He then made a comment about not using it for a while, and hoping there are no maintenance fees or service charges. Again, I couldn't resist the impulse to point out the small print on the back of the card that he has a year to use it before charges are applied, so he may not want to forget about it between now and then. "Otherwise, you could always wait until you plan to use it to purchase it."

[Andara Bledin]

He then made a comment about not using it for a while, and hoping there are no maintenance fees or service charges. Again, I couldn't resist the impulse to point out the small print on the back of the card that he has a year to use it before charges are applied, so he may not want to forget about it between now and then. "Otherwise, you could always wait until you plan to use it to purchase it."

One thing I like about California. If you have a gift card or gift certificate, you will, eventually, get the full value on it, no matter when you use it. They cannot expire and "maintenance fees" cannot be charged against it.

^-.-^

[Shangri-laschild]

God yeah. I don't let those suckers out of my HAND until they've been paid for. However, at our store, you can only pay cash for them, and they have to be rung up at customer service. We really don't trust the lowlifes around here to not scam our poor cashiers. Then again, having a separate CS desk is a luxury a gas station doesn't have.

Not to say that YOU're naive or stupid, but with gas stations often being run by 1-2 people at a time, with no supervisor about, I assume there there are times where someone fairly new is left alone. And the only way newbies or even old lifers can learn is by experiences like these, unfortunately. Therefore, I'm really glad the cops got this one.

No, I was naive at the time. I had not been working there that long and I made the mistake of doing something without thinking. Was as pissed at myself as I was at him. Was still really pissed at him though! Yeah, was really happy/suprised when they took me over to their car and showed me a picture on the MDC and asked me if that was him. It barely took any time at all for them to figure out who he was.