Retailers Can't Keep Scammers Away From Their Favorite Payment Form: Gift Cards (axios.com) 96
Retailers are struggling to rein in the proliferation of scammers tricking Americans into buying thousands of dollars' worth of gift cards. From a report: The Federal Trade Commission estimates that Americans lost at least $217 million to gift card scams last year. That number is likely higher, given many victims are too embarrassed to report to law enforcement. Cracking down on gift card scams was a hot topic this week at the National Retail Federation's (NRF) cybersecurity conference in Long Beach, California.
Some gift card scams start with texts from people pretending to be tech support, your boss, the government or a wrong number. Eventually, those conversations lead to someone asking the victim to buy gift cards on their behalf and send the barcode number to them via text. Others involve criminals in physical locations, tampering with a gift card to access the barcode information and then stealing the funds without taking the actual card. Each scam targets vulnerable populations: elderly, less-tech savvy people; those who are lonely and work from home; and even young kids, experts say.
Some gift card scams start with texts from people pretending to be tech support, your boss, the government or a wrong number. Eventually, those conversations lead to someone asking the victim to buy gift cards on their behalf and send the barcode number to them via text. Others involve criminals in physical locations, tampering with a gift card to access the barcode information and then stealing the funds without taking the actual card. Each scam targets vulnerable populations: elderly, less-tech savvy people; those who are lonely and work from home; and even young kids, experts say.
To everyone who thinks they're immune (Score:2)
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Some people are, indeed, immune, by going mushy in the other direction. I was just reading about a receptionist in a doctor's office who had a patient call for an appointment who wouldn't give her name, out of paranoid fear for some kind of scam. When she called the office she'd been going to for decades.
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It's easy to be immune from this specific scam. Never buy gift cards for anyone upon THEIR request - especially if it's out of the blue and doubly especially if you have never bought them that gift card before. Even better, just never buy gift cards for anyone for any reason ever. I have gotten the fake texts from a boss asking to do this kind of thing. I told whoever it was kill themself over and over until they blocked me. It's really easy.
Re: To everyone who thinks they're immune (Score:3)
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That is a different part of the problem.
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TFA states that scammers read the card barcodes without buying them - so whoever then buys the card gets a dud. The only defence is not to buy gift cards at all.
Why don't stores put the cards behind glass or on the wall behind the counter?
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Because the majority of gift cards are useless if they're not activated by buying it at the register. If one steals one and tries to use it, the number will show that the card has not been purchased and has a $0 balance.
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Re: To everyone who thinks they're immune (Score:2)
Why doesn't the activation check if the card has already been activated.
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It does. This scam uses gift cards because they're extremely difficult to trace. And they will work internationally most of the time. Ie, you're being scammed, someone from Pakistan calls you up and claims to have fixed your viruses the found, and can further scan your computer for malware but needs to be paid $100 in gift cards. The victim buys the cards, then reads the numbers and pin to the scammer over the phone. This way, there's no bank check, which is difficult to use in other countries, there's n
Re:To everyone who thinks they're immune (Score:5, Informative)
The latest variant of the "your grandson has been arrested and you need to post bail or he'll be ass raped in prison" involves AI generated voices that sounds like said grandson. So it's not a stranger asking, so far as the victim knows.
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I've told my parents if they get any phone call similar to this they are to tell the person to keep me because I'm not worth it. Then hang up.
Re:To everyone who thinks they're immune (Score:4, Funny)
My parents wouldn't have needed to be told that.
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Ok, but it is literally not possible to use any form of gift card to post bail. And then we are no longer talking about gift card scams.
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load $50 onto an olive garden card send the barcode to me. i'll show you how it is done.
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You aren't going to, nor are you capable of, showing anything.
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No, no, no. The scam isn't the gift cards themselves. The gift cards are just the means to pay the scammer. The scam itself can be any low level con.
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The gift cards are just the means to pay the scammer.
And, yet, the gift cards are the relevant part of the scam(s) that we are talking about. Gift cards cannot be used to post bail, therefore, you know it's scam if anyone ever says "your grandson has been arrested and you need to post bail or he'll be ass raped in prison" (per the previous commenter) and they start demanding gift cards for bail.
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True, but almost all scams are about tricking someone into doing something illogical that they would not do if they just stopped and thought about it a bit first or had it explained to them by someone they trust who understands such things.
Doesn't matter if it's "bail", I don't know of any case where gift cards make sense as a payment method for any scams. Not yet way... however, with AI I could see this in the future - you get a call from a voice that sounds like your grandchild saying "I forgot to get mo
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Sure, but then we fall back to the other rule: do not buy gift cards at the sudden and unexpected prompting of anyone else - even "the most trusted" people.
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Or to not have any money to steal. So, in a way, the scammers are only trying to help you protect yourself.
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Lucky you ;-)
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Yep, so? You do the posting of bail in the regular established channels and no money ever goes to the scammer. The trick these assholes are using is for you to make payments to untrusted targets. Posting bail will never require you to do something like that. Bail is not a bribe.
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Most people have no idea what the regular way is, and the presentation is designed (and often well designed) to instill panic, precluding any kind of rational thought.
(And they target particularly vulnerable people, especially old people.)
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Well, so do not panic. Yes, I am aware most people are too dumb and too immature to be able to go that way. Which is why these scams work time and again.
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Yep. It is easy to avoid getting hit. And the scams always follow the same pattern. They do not change because on the stupid majority of the human race, they _work_ and continue to work. Why would the scammers invest more work if they can get most potential victims to cooperate?
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Bahbus, please stop by my office later; after you removed any personal items from your cube.
Thanks
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Some special "gift" cards will be left on your desk.
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The basic rules seem to be common sense. And yet common sense is very uncommon. It does affect older people more often, because computers and technology advance faster than they know what is happening. But for people of all ages, if they've got some gullibility that often will put common sense on a back burner. Ie, get a phone call that money is urgently needed for paying fees on your lottery winnings, paying bail for your grandkid, getting rid of the virus they just found on your computer, etc, and the
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- If someone claiming to represent a large business (or even small) refuses to accept a check, then be extremely suspicious. (just plain bogus, never mind that some lunch trucks exist that only accept apple pay with a phone tap).
Well, by default, I don't trust any businesses that still take checks, nor do I trust people still trying to pay with a check. Because checks are a terrible and insecure method of payment. If you can use checks, you can use a debit card. But otherwise, overall, yeah, good points.
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95% of all US based businesses take them, if they want to do business with the general public. 100% of financial businesses do (so any anyone claiming to be a bank or debt collector who won't take a check is a scammer). Almost all retail stores will take then. 100% of all government agencies that need to be paid or who collect taxes, fees, levies, etc. All independently run services I've seen (locksmiths, plumbers, etc), unless they're being shady are undocumented workers. For any amount over $1000 where so
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I don't count financial institutions to be businesses, regardless of the fact that they are. I don't know where you are, but in many areas checks are no longer taken at most retail businesses. Unless they have one of the systems to run the check immediately (and thus, it is the same as running a debit card) they don't take them. And why should a business waste money buying one of these machines (especially newer businesses)? If your money is in the bank/credit union, you can get a debit card. They aren't a
Re: To everyone who thinks they're immune (Score:2)
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The trouble is that most people are rather dumb to begin with.
This is the primary reason why these scams are even a thing. They work quite well on most people and hence the scammers can learn and optimize with almost no risk. After a while, they get quite good at it. I doubt medical treatment makes much of a difference. Anybody able to fact-check (a small minority) will just be that more careful when they have brain-fog. The self-assured moron majority will not.
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A lot of people who get scammed once learn their mistakes and become more suspicious, learn to spot scams, etc. My mother on the other hand, with a mix of gullibility, stubbornness, and I now suspect life long learning difficulties, and a deep-set aversion to ever admitting mistakes, has been scammed dozens of time often by the same guy. I am utterly amazed how she falls for the most obvious scams: the PDF letter claiming she won the sweepstakes is chock full of typos, and I point them out, and she's got
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deep-set aversion to ever admitting mistakes
That describes a lot of people, unfortunately. It directly results in learning issues as well, because in order to learn you have to realize and accept when you make mistakes.
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I got sedated today. I was told I should have a responsible adult around me for at least 8 hours today. Pfft, who cares, after coming back from the clinic I've been alone all day and spending my time responsibly playing video games!
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First thing anyone can do at any age is only pay people in person. That will cut down most of the scammers.
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"To these kind of scams time comes for us all and if you don't dive a heart attack, stroke or some other disease your brain is going to gradually turn to mush."
In other words, since everybody dies, we have those whose minds turn to mush before they die and those whose minds don't.
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I have a cousin who just moved to a nursing home last year at 103 years old... after he had a minor wreck while driving. He'd lived alone for a few years, since his wife passed away, but was still keeping a garden and driving into town a few times per week to hang out with his buddies.
He needed some assistance after the wreck, and was in short-term care, but they decided it was probably time for him to have more help on a longer-term (whatever that means at 103) basis.
So no, it's not inevitable that you're
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Not really. Just do plausibility checking and you are pretty much immune. Unless you go into dementia, that is a skill for life. Most people (something like >80%) cannot do plausibility checking and fact checking for shit and the scammers are quite happy to go after them and leave the (small) rest alone.
Do not redeem! (Score:2)
How long did this guy string the scammer along before he pulled the ripcord (so to speak)?
Ban iTunes Gift Cards!!! (Score:1)
Just kidding but I want to hear the Bitcoin Derangement Syndrome people say it.
Every challenge, to them, requires thugs with weaponry.
I am glad Tesla escaped their grasp, but on the other hand if they had defeated Alternating Current they'd be less annoying now.
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If you haven't watched it the recent movie The Beekeeper is about just this. It wasn't a gift card scam but the plot revolved around an old lady getting scammed out her savings and Jason Statham deciding "now I have to kill everybody". It's bonkers in a lot of good ways.
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I'm curious, though... how many people are actually naive enough to believe that government organizations like the IRS would want to be paid in Google Play gift cards? I'd like to hope that percentage is pretty low, but I guess that it's high enough to make the scam profitable.
Re:Legal money laundering and AML/KYC avoidance (Score:5, Insightful)
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Right, $50 to send a million emails. Which is why email has taken over snail mail because even bulk mail rates are too expensive for many scams. The main reason Nigeria cracked down on scammers in the past is because they were forging stamps for their Nigerian Prince scams.
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The puzzling part for me isn't that there are plenty of people that gullible so much as, how the hell did people that gullible get enough money saved up to be worth scamming?
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These people are probably not that gullible normally, but the scammers tend to create a panic scenario "we are calling from the IRS and you will be charged with fraud in 5 minutes if you don't fix this situation" or "we are calling from the FBI and if you don't comply then criminals will steal your entire life savings from your bank"
Believing that is a level of gullibility that, I would have hoped, would preclude having enough to be worth stealing.
Obviously, I am overly optimistic.
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When my son was a very small baby and I was extremely tired, I nearly fell for a "your card has been used at an Apple Store" scam.
It was the classic pressure situation, and I panicked and gave out far too much information, including calling "Hammersmith police" using the same phone (so it was still the scammers on the line).
I only twigged when they said they'd send a courier to pick up my card, which rang a "SCAM!" bell in my head, and then I told them to f off.
My only plus was that I'd made them waste a go
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Mostly retirement accounts, or basic checking accounts that pensions feed into. This part is easy. For elderly people, they don't know what's a normal payment method or not - I still find it dubious that people willingly pay with their phones and tie a credit card with it. I can imagine many people confused that someone just taps a phone and walks away with their groceries paid for. And every day there's yet another new startup with a silly new name that claims to do online payments, online banking, on
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...Scammers will also say things like "this avoids having to pay taxes" and many people will think this is sensible. Especially if the logic center of their brain is turned off that would otherwise say "a big bank like this would not casually flaunt the law and set itself up for prosecution."
On the other hand, there is Wells Fargo.
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Watch Jimmy Kimmel sometime when he has someone go out in the street and ask regular folks simple questions. You'll wonder how American society still functions.
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I get scam calls in Chinese mentioning the CRA (Canada Revenue Agency), so there's one group, new immigrants, of which there are a lot here in Canada.
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Gift cards are pretty close to cash, but they are more easily transferable since they can be represented digitally. This makes them pretty ripe for abuse. Crypto is the runner up, but it's too complicated for most of the marks to figure out.
Too complicated for abuse? Three words: Crypto Gift Card -- problem solved. :-)
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If I'd have been able to lay hands on them, let's just say the cops would not have been involved and their bodies would never be found.
I hear you. I'm a quiet person, I don't like violence, I believe in rule of law. But when my mom gets scammed yet again, the rage builds up and I can only see red and I think the most vile thoughts of retribution. But these days, I have power of attorney, the checkbook is hidden, my name is co-owner of all accounts, I constantly monitor all her emails, etc. I wish I could have done this decades ago.
Public Service Announcements (Score:2)
Almost none these days, even on legacy media. Definitely not where young people spend time.
They could surely expand it to YouTube and any other major ad-supported service. Or YouTube and TikTok could bargain on policy by offering cheap spots.
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Honeypot gift cards (Score:2)
Is it possible to set up some fake gift cards so these assholes can buy themselves a jail sentence?
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If law enforcement would care, sure. But they do not.
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The biggest snags are that the amount of money stolen with gift cards is relatively small per victim, and the scammer who now has the money usually lives in a different country. Often countries without extradition treaties, or who look the other way when its citizens are stealing from evil westerners.
My experience. (Score:5, Interesting)
I got hit with the scam twice, first at one company then another. The deal was they were pretending to be the guy I was working for, and it was an insanely busy day, and the ask just didn't seem like a big deal.
I got instructions to go to the closest Apple store and buy two $500 gift cards to give to important clients. The weird thing was that day I just happened to be going to the Apple store anyway to trade out a faulty keyboard. So I thought no big deal. Take a couple of minutes and help the guy out.
It wasn't until I was actually at the Apple store and asking them about gift cards when I pull up the messages and realize that the phone number that the text messages were coming from were not in my contacts list. And not my client's number at all. At that point it was the holy s**t moment.
Next time it happened -- same scam different circumstances different employer about 10 months later. I jerked them around a bit pretending then lost interest.
I wouldn't have lost money even if I had purchased them. After getting the cards they want you to text them the numbers of the cards. Who the hell uses a gift card that way? I would have asked a couple of questions which would have busted the ruse anyway.
It seems that this scam works on enough people that they make money at it. I was heavily stressed and distracted at the time and they just happened to hit me at a moment that the request seemed reasonable, at least at first. But I can't imagine being so inattentive or clueless that they would have gotten a payout out of me. I wonder who it works on.
Re:My experience. (Score:5, Insightful)
We see these all the time. The scammers seem to be scraping LinkedIn. We have had several instances of a new employee starting and within a few weeks start to get SMS and/or e-mail messages from C-levels asking for GCs or whatever.
It's part of our onboarding process now to warn about these types of scams.
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It's part of our onboarding process now to warn about these types of scams.
Good idea. Will probably not eliminate it completely, but make it far harder for the scammers.
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I was like: right, like the CEO knows who I am.
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The fact that this might actually be a thing at any workplace is insane.
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Giving gift cards to clients is already a red flag. Depending upon the business it brings up ethics issues. Might even be illegal in some cases when dealing with international clients.
But the gift cards to give out as employee awards is a big thing in many companies. Usually you have HR or an administrative assistant handle this, and it happens enough that there's a regular procedure to follow. Often no one pays directly for anything in a business without having a purchase order. Except maybe with tiny s
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Don't worry about the first time. You spotted it and well before it was too late. That is all that counts. Most people cannot do that. Like at all.
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They use the gift cards by either buying stuff with them (Amazon cards, GamePass cards, etc), or by requesting refunds, or by reselling those giftcards at a discount.
You mean more a scam than gift cards themselves? (Score:5, Interesting)
You know what a gift card is right? It's like really inconvenient money you can only spend at one place.
If you offer me a gift card, I'll punch you in the face: if you want to give me money, give me money but don't restrict where I can spend it. But most importantly, nothing says "I didn't know what to get you so here's money but disguised as something thoughtful to look less crass" than a gift card.
Gift cards are a terrible idea that need to die.
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I agree. The reason why gift-cards are a thing is that they allow companies to print money. Hence they are exceptionally profitable for almost no effort. You would have to be able to get past a lot of lobbying to outlaw them.
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If it was a gift horse you'd look it in the mouth, wouldn't you?
Just sayin'.
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Pretty sure a lot of people would refuse a gift horse, nor would they be able to estimate the horse's age from checking how much their jaw shrunk making them look long in the tooth.
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I don't mind gift cards IF they are where I will use like Amazon and don't expire.
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You can redeem gift cards for cash though in most cases. Or give the gift card to a spouse or friend.
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Yeah, like I said, just like cash but less convenient.
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You know what a gift card is right? It's like really inconvenient money you can only spend at one place.
If you offer me a gift card, I'll punch you in the face: if you want to give me money, give me money but don't restrict where I can spend it. But most importantly, nothing says "I didn't know what to get you so here's money but disguised as something thoughtful to look less crass" than a gift card.
Gift cards are a terrible idea that need to die.
I agree...
However it seems to be a particular infliction in Anglo-American society that a gift has to be personal... So people buy gift cards so it looks like they put some thought into it when in reality both sides would have been happier to be given cash (and no-one admits this).
Fun story (Score:3)
A coworker of mine got one of these and posted a screenshot on our Slack. I texted the scammer back ("Hey, it's Marie... I'm replying from my other phone") and they bought it. I then had a very nice and extended conversation with the scammer, and when he asked me to text him photos of the card, I said I didn't know how to do that, but would email them directly to the customer he wanted them for. I asked him for the customer's email and he sent me a gmail.com address.
So I emailed him the goatse.cx image. He had some very choice words for me. I enjoyed wasting ~30 minutes of his time.
But yes. If I ever start losing my mental acuity, I'm well aware I might one day fall for crap like this, so it's important to try to stop these scams.
Why is this even a story? (Score:2)
Gift cards are basically money printed without a license. Obviously, this means it is a primary tool for money laundering. This really has zero surprise value.
They have warnings about this in Australia... (Score:2)
The ACCC (government agency that among other things monitors scams here in Australia) puts out paperwork warning people about the giftcard scams and many retailers (e.g. supermarkets) will put that sign at registers or on the gift card racks so people are warned about the scams.
Obviously its not going to stop all the scams but its going to at least make people aware of them and a non-zero number of people will see that sign, read it and not lose their money as a result.
Easy solution (Score:1)