Gift card scammers

[Fairysprinkles]

Tis the season for gift card scammers. I work at Publix as cashier and this time of year we get people grabbing stacks of $25-$50 gifts for the holidays. Now Publixs' policy is that if the gift cards are for more that $100 but I think $60 is too high and the customer is writing a check we need to go to customer service with the customers license. Now yesterday these two young women came through my line a stack of 6 inches thick of gifts. SO I said "Hello." to them and began ringing them up smelling the BS but it would've been wierd to stop in the middle of the order. They say nothing to me and the cahsier who was my bagger and I kept giving each looks like "She is so a scammer." So I notice about 6 times this woman pulls out either her checkbook or her credit card and places it back in her purse. I get to the end of the order $482.65 and she writes the check and hands it to me and I ask her for ID. SHe thinks nothing of it and hands me her check and ID and I walk to customer service and tell me manager "This chick is shady and show her the check that has name stamped on it. That's right STAMPED! My manager was about to come over to my register when the Scammer yells "Oh wait I'll pay with my credit card>" I ask for her card and her ID and she says "Oh nevermind I haven't chnaged it to my married name cancel the order." SO i had to get and office staff to void off $482.65 in gift cards but my manager got her license plate number and emailed the other Publixes in the area. Tis the season guy for scmaming douchebags.

[blas]

Don't those have to be activated in order to be used?

The biggest season of the shoplifters as well!
Everyone pay close attention to your customers. See what jacket they are wearing when they walk in vs when they walk out. SHOES also! People think others will not look at their feet. See if someone magically gets....wider as they walk out of the store. People have stuffed clothes under their shirts/pants before!

These people are really sick in the head, but always peek behind the baby to see if there's any clothes or other merchandise in the stroller. Some people stash their goodies amongst their bundles of joy.

[CrazedClerk]

I had a guy come in on Monday who pleaded with me to allow him to return two $100 gift cards because apparently someone else had bought two $100 cards for the same person. I didn't give in and he vowed to take it up with corporate (gift card returns are a BIG no-no).

Yesterday I come in and hear about a guy who came in and pleaded with the manager to let him return a couple of $100 gift cards. His reason? His son is dying and won't have time to use all cards.

Just give it up dipwad.

[greensinestro]

Yeah, something is definitely fishy about that one. Makes you wonder if they pull that crap when buying groceries. Imagine having to put back $482 worth of groceries because a customer tried to scam you.

[4Gifts4Lisa]

... always peek behind the baby to see if there's any clothes or other merchandise in the stroller. Some people stash their goodies amongst their bundles of joy.

That would be so incredibly easy to do...I bet stores lose alot of money that way. Ditto for the huge diaper bags.

I always lift my baby out and let the cashier see behind baby, under the stroller (basket area) and I also pull the canopy tight so they can see there is nothing there, either. Mostly I do this because there have been a few times where I have gotten out of the store only to see that my little one had been holding something or something fell in the crevices, and I had to go back in to pay for it.

[greensinestro]

That would be so incredibly easy to do...I bet stores lose alot of money that way. Ditto for the huge diaper bags.

I always lift my baby out and let the cashier see behind baby, under the stroller (basket area) and I also pull the canopy tight so they can see there is nothing there, either. Mostly I do this because there have been a few times where I have gotten out of the store only to see that my little one had been holding something or something fell in the crevices, and I had to go back in to pay for it.

Me, too. Ever since my daughter "stole" a votive candle from the Cracker Barrel a while back. We hadn't noticed it until we were two miles from the place.

[simplyanother]

I had a guy come in on Monday who pleaded with me to allow him to return two $100 gift cards because apparently someone else had bought two $100 cards for the same person. I didn't give in and he vowed to take it up with corporate (gift card returns are a BIG no-no).

Someone wanted to return one of our giftcards the other day. Thankfully, they only called, but still. It never occured to me to return giftcards, would be nice...(FOR ME...for when people give me cards to places I don't shop at...heh).

Yesterday I had a woman come through my line and when I was done ringing her stuff up, she slapped a gift card on the counter...she said "see how much is on that". Something about her whole demeanor was off. Anyway, when I swiped the card it said "account not active". Which leads me to believe she found the thing and was hoping someone had lost a good gift card. (What she could be that stupid. HONEST). ETA: The major reason I thought that she might have found the card, or stolen it was that she really had no reaction when I told her it was an inactive card.

Aren't there places online where people can either trade or sell gift cards for face value and/or slightly lower? ETA: I meant besides e-bay! lol But yeah, that works too.

[greensinestro]

Aren't there places online where people can either trade or sell gift cards for face value and/or slightly lower?

Sure, try E-Bay!

[CaroPhoenix]

I heard on the news or read in the newspaper about people who go through the gift cards, write down the gift card numbers and after a few weeks, call the 1-800 number and see if the card is activated and for how much, or whatever. Then the scammers would use the gift cards at the websites the gift cards would be good at. Never occured to me to do that, but it is sleazy.

[karma_gypsy]

Aren't there places online where people can either trade or sell gift cards for face value and/or slightly lower? ETA: I meant besides e-bay! lol But yeah, that works too.

Umm, I think http://www.swapagift.com will allow you to trade gift cards at face value . . . .

[Dave1982]

At Staples, we are not allowed to sell anyone more than 25 gift cards. If they want more than that, they have to do a "Bulk Gift Card Purchace" which is handled through corporate. So anyone coming up to me with a "six inch stack" is going to be turned away. Though no one has come up to my line for more than 6, and that person only put $10 on each and paid in cash, so it was fine.

I think the flip side of this discussion is the SC who comes in to pay with a huge stack of cards. At Stapls, we have a special kind of gift card called a "Cash Card" which is ONLY issued when we are giving people a store credit, which 99% of the time is for a return w/o receipt (which I wish we would not do). Therefore, the odds of anyone having more than 2 or 3 of these at the same time legitimately is pretty small. More than once I've had people pay for very expensive items and/or large quantites of items enitrely with cash cards. I've had two people buy $800+ digital cameras with them, and the cards in both cases were for very similar amounts, from $75-80. Can you say "thief?" I knew you could.

Whenever I see this, I set aside the cards and discretely print out a duplicate receipt, which I then give to the manager. Whenever we do a return withput receipt, we have to take down name, address, and phone number. This data is then stored along with the cash card numbers, so we can usually track down these scammers that way (assuming they are stupid enough to use a real ID).

[CrazedClerk]

Sad update folks:

Corporate actually CAVED to the guy with the dying kid story and let him return the cards even though it says right on the cards: "CAN NOT BE RETURNED or redeemed for CASH."

Man that makes me angry.

[greensinestro]

Sad update folks:

Corporate actually CAVED to the guy with the dying kid story and let him return the cards even though it says right on the cards: "CAN NOT BE RETURNED or redeemed for CASH."

Man that makes me angry.

That's terrible. I would never ever use my kids for any kind of personal gain like that. People like that do not deserve to be parents.

[MadMike]

That's terrible. I would never ever use my kids for any kind of personal gain like that. People like that do not deserve to be parents.

...if there even were any kids in the first place. The kids in question may not even have existed.

[greensinestro]

I heard on the news or read in the newspaper about people who go through the gift cards, write down the gift card numbers and after a few weeks, call the 1-800 number and see if the card is activated and for how much, or whatever. Then the scammers would use the gift cards at the websites the gift cards would be good at. Never occured to me to do that, but it is sleazy.

Never thought of that one. I'll bet stores sooner or later will have to keep them behind the counter and out of the customer's reach thanks to people who do that. I never would have thought of doing something like that, but I guess it can be done.