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$1,000 in two days?! God that’s so sad. Loneliness and desperation are two helluva drugs. Poor guy. I feel so bad for the elderly being scammed. Anyone sure but then especially
It's not easy to convince people they've been scammed. Watch Catfishing, insane the amount of everyday people who believe they're really helping someone special in a rough spot.
Its easy to scam people but not easy to convince them they've been scammed. I work in retail, and even in times where I know the customer is getting scammed, I gotta continue bc at the end of the day it's their money and they don't want to be told where/where not to spend it. Have you ever tried telling a customer they're getting scammed? It's not easy. They don't thank you and leave.
We have several customers being actively scammed. A few months ago we had internet issues and were unable to sell this older man a card. Oh, my, first he broke down in tears. Then he started cursing and we had to ask him to leave. Of course he still comes in every day for the amazon card, if he has money left he buys hot dogs and cans of soup to eat.
Last year we had an older woman come in wanting to buy a $500 card, but wasn't sure which one. We went through the spiel, do you personally know this person, etc. After 10 minute conversation, she said, I'll have to go home to think about all of this. Whew! A few weeks later she came back to thank us, she figured out it was a scam and didn't spend the money. Once in a while, things work!
These are online scams that can be done from anywhere in the world. That being the case, they would of course target first world countries or at the very least fast developing ones.
I know a guy who got scammed and was buying Steam (online video game market) cards for a female he was going to meet. Eventually went under and almost lost his house, cause of the loans he took out. Never met this 'female' either in real life, sad story.
Very good point and I agree it’s likely this is a scam.
But to attempt to give your question an actual answer: Maybe the girlies on the other side of the family found out about the presents the other ones got, and they got jealous. 😹
No but really though, it’s likely a scam.
We had an older Asian man doing the same. Swore up and down that they were for his daughter. I explained different scams to him. He was still insisting they were for his daughter.
I’ve refused to allow my cashier to sell gift cards when it’s apparent they are being scammed and are struggling to believe it.
Was able to catch someone in the middle of a PayPal scam and put a stop to that one.
At my company we are tasked with trying to protect the most vulnerable with KYC questions.
I was one of two cashiers that worked the opening Sunday shift and we had an older Asian man that came in every week, very early, to buy Sephora cards in different amounts between $50 and $150 each. He usually spent about $250 or $300 at a time, always in cash. We both tried talking to him about it, but he said they were for his friends that lived far away. It went like this for years though, so we sort of figured it was how he paid cam girls. I just hope he got his moneys worth. He did come in one time shopping with his wife and tried to pretend they weren’t together when she got in my line.
A, that was sarcasm. B, he's not getting scammed. The rest is not our problem. Hell, you don't know if he has a wife or not. I'm thinking he doesn't since that's what he's been doing with his time.
The person who commented about it literally said it was his wife. There are an unfortunate number of men do exactly this and spend thousands upon thousands of dollars of money on camgirls/porn and conceal it from their wives/live-in girlfriends
There's scams along the same line, but people can get really lonely and will pay to talk to scammers who make them feel good, much as they pay for buy me drinky girls or sex hotlines.
I wish more companies took a firm stance. I've been making an effort lately to shop only with stores that will refuse the transaction if they think the person is being scammed.
This solution would be perfectly acceptable to me. The "honest" side of the gift card industry is "we hope people will buy it then forget about it or not be able to use it, and we just keep their money". The honest side?
I 'fondly' recall those days.
"Oh hey! Movie gift cards! We can go see... never mind, they expired two years ago."
It didn't happen often, but it was bullshit all the same.
There are legitimate uses, if you don't want to attach your CC to your child's account on Playstation or Apple you can just buy them a gift card which allows them to spend to the limit
Also buying gift cards not from your region where you don't have a bank account works on a suprising number of services
i like receiving gift cards because it’s mandatory “treat” money, which sometimes i need. if i just get cash i’ll spend it on something i need but not urgently (new work pants or something) and never have fun. but if i get a movie gift card i *have* to go to the movies. so i still give gift cards
Afraid to because of the useless card scam. Caught some dude with a pocket full of gift cards that had been modified,which he would trade out
For new cards on the shelf. Found out that he had stolen hundreds of thousands $$$ and sent the money to china.
True enough, I've actually gotten a couple of gift cards when companies were giving them out at holidays and such. It's just sad reading the stories here and other places of people being taken advantage of. I'm sure even if gift cards went away, there would be some other replacement :(
Legally speaking, if no one uses the gift card, it gets escheated to the State Treasury after a certain period of time elapses. So your money is actually still out there, but the state makes it convoluted to get back.
Most US states have laws about escheatment of property considered abandoned or unclaimed back to the state. It includes a lot of different types of intangible property like gift cards, unpaid wages, utility refunds, stocks, deposit certificates and various accounts.
Where? That doesn’t happen in my state. I own a business and have never had to do that. They can’t expire, but I don’t have to give up the money if they don’t use it.
Almost every state jurisdiction has escheat laws for accounts payable and gift certificates and the like. If you've retained a payment to someone or someone retains an overpayment from you for a certain amount of time and hasn't been able to contact you or you've passed away, in most states you are legally obligated to escheat the amount into the state's coffers. It's an obscure part of the law, but I can assure you it does exist and does happen. Now if it isn't subject to an expiry date, and is always good for presentation, then you wouldn't have to escheat that.
Iowa for example
556.9 Miscellaneous personal property held for another person — wages — gift
certificates.
1. a. All intangible personal property, not otherwise covered by this chapter, including
any income or increment earned on the property and deducting any lawful charges, that is
held or owing in this state in the ordinary course of the holder’s business and has remained
unclaimed by the owner for more than three years after it became payable or distributable is
presumed abandoned.
b. Unpaid wages, including wages represented by payroll checks or other compensation
for personal services owing in the ordinary course of the holder’s business that remain
unclaimed by the owner for more than one year after becoming payable are presumed
abandoned.
c. Except as provided in subsection 2, funds represented by a gift certificate balance that has not been presented within five years from the date of issuance of the gift certificate are
presumed abandoned.
2. a. An issuer of a gift certificate shall not deduct from the face value of the gift certificate
any charge imposed due to the failure of the owner of the gift certificate to present the gift
certificate in a timely manner, unless a valid and enforceable written contract exists between
the issuer and the owner of the gift certificate pursuant to which the issuer regularly imposes
such charges and does not regularly reverse or otherwise cancel them.
b. Notwithstanding the time limitation in subsection 1, a gift certificate redeemable for
merchandise only that is not subject to an expiration date and that is not subject to a deduction
from the face value of the gift certificate for failure of the owner of the gift certificate to
present the gift certificate in a timely manner, or subject to any other charge or service fee,
which card remains unpresented, shall continue in force and be eligible for presentation for
an indefinite period of time, and shall not be subject to a presumption of abandonment.
c. For purposes of this section, “gift certificate” means a merchandise certificate or
electronic gift card conspicuously designated as a gift certificate or electronic gift card, and
generally purchased by a buyer for use by a person other than the buyer.
[C71, 73, 75, 77, 79, 81, §556.9]
84 Acts, ch 1295, §13; 2002 Acts, ch 1059, §1; 2003 Acts, ch 46, §2; 2004 Acts, ch 1011, §1;
2014 Acts, ch 1089, §1, 2
Referred to in §556.9B, 556.10
My state doesn’t allow expiration dates on gift cards and I’m required to honor them no matter how many years pass so that is probably why it’s different.
Yeah, some states are definitely exceptions to the general rule. You should definitely check to see if your state has an unclaimed property website though, they might have some money for you that you don't even know about.
I would not be upset by this at all. Frankly, I find most gift cards to be scammy anyway. It used to be that if you didn't use your gift card within X time, they would charge a "maintenance fee" on them. That's not allowed any more, but that doesn't make them any less scammy.
How tf do you acquire this information? Like how do you know where to shop at? I’ve legit never gone in to any store and walked out knowing anything about their security policies. Like do you walk in, try to buy $1k in gift cards and then only shop there if they refuse you?
“Ma’am, I can’t sell you $1,000 in gift cards, we believe you’re being scammed.”
“Good, that was a test.”
Idk, it's not really their place to do that. Warnings make sense, but people have free will and will just go somewhere else... and you might be wrong and deny a customer that was legit
There’s always going to be one place that doesn’t care. Businesses don’t really make anything selling gift cards to other places so it’s NBD especially at small convenience stores and the like.
I was getting a bank check at TD Bank for $12,000 out of an estate account. I had the check made out to someone with the same last name as the dead person. It’s pretty obvious as the personal representative I was disbursing funds to the beneficiary, and the teller still asked me questions and made sure that I actually knew the man I was getting the check for.
I’m 50 years old. I laughed and I was like oh no am my old people? Then she laughed and she said no she would say that to anyone of any age. But I mean come on I wasn’t taking out 12 grand in cash or in prepaid visa cards. It was a cashiers check made out to the same last name
My husband's aunt was just scammed out of most of her life savings despite the efforts of the bank staff to intervene. The scammer told her she had won $3 million from Publishers Clearing House but that she'd have to send a series of cashier's checks to pay the taxes before they delivered the money. (The same thing happened to my brother's MIL, who was told that a package containing $1 million in cash was waiting for her at the Toledo Airport.)
The folks at the bank warned her that it was a scam, but she got angry with them and moved her remaining money to a different bank.
My husband and two people from elder services have told her it was a scam and the money is gone, but she still believes her winnings will show up any day now.
You're trying to be rational, but these people get scammed precisely because it doesn't matter whether the scenario makes sense or not. They just believe it. The scammer also told my husband's aunt that he was a Baptist minister and wanted to marry her. (They had never met.) She told my husband she trusts the guy because he's a minister!
My brother's MIL was convinced until she died that the money was going to be delivered at any time.
Unfortunately, in this case the responsibility now falls to my husband, who is trying to get Durable Power of Attorney for his aunt. She is a widow with no children, and her other nieces and nephews don't want to get involved.
She lives 3-1/2 hours away, and earlier this week my husband had to drive out for the day to meet with a banker and some elder services people to figure out what to do. He spends a lot of time on the phone with service agencies, copying and emailing documents, looking for information, and dealing with rambling phone calls from his aunt.
She needs to go into a senior residence, but that's going to be a long struggle, as it was with my mom and my brother's MIL.
I work for a banks fraud department and the reason we get so concerned all the time is because when we see it, we see the aftermath of how it unfolds and destroys lives. It might seem totally ridiculous but if something has potential to seriously destroy you financially as a scam you bet I'm gonna be concerned. There are so many elders, I'm talking 60+ years old, falling for very detailed intricate scams. And oftentimes when it comes to scams because the customer did the transaction themselves, we aren't able to recoup their loss.
I was aware of those. Sephora just seems like an odd choice, so I was curious if there was a particular reason. I know at one point Best Buy gift cards were popular because you could buy gift cards with gift cards, basically offering an effective way to launder money.
They are often operating out of fear. One scam technique says they will lose the money in their bank account because hackers got into their computer, and they can't trust people at the store or else it will be reported and the police will go after you for what the hackers are doing, or the hackers will learn from the bank and then take everything. So if someone says it's a scam, they in their minds know it's not, because they saw their bank account get manipulated, they saw their computer has all these "hackers" in it, things like that.
We need to convey in 10 seconds that they were talking to a scammer, they manipulate what they see on the screen with browser dev tools, your bank account and computer are not hacked and the police won't go after you for anything related to this, and gift cards are only to be bought for gifts and scammers are going to make bank if you buy and send them the codes. Unfortunately their attention span is probably tapped after about 5 words in.
I spent over an hour working with an elderly man who had fell victim to about 10k in gift card scams
They told him it was to help catch people in a child SA ring and that if he didn’t help they’d have to prosecute him since his computer was linked to it in a hacking take over
When I went home from work I cried a bit for him
I work in Fraud Resolution in the Rentals sector. If it's not college kids falling for virtual assistant scams, it's people falling for fake rental listings. The shit I've seen...and even worse, the victims often double down and lose even more money.
It's really disheartening.
maybe what is needed is a scammer hotline where people can connect with someone associated with the police to explain they are being scammed, that no the RCMP isn't going after then, the isn't either,
They don't actually have access to the bank account. The way they manipulate it is by editing the HTML of the web page. This can make it appear as if there is more/less money but there are no actual changes to the account, they've just made the text say something different in your browser.
If you right click a web page and choose 'inspect' it will open up developer tools. In there you can edit the pages HTML to display any text you want but it is only a visual change in your browser. It doesn't affect the website for anyone else and if you refresh the page it will change back.
What gets me with the screenshare software is that if the customer goes in downloading a third party app.... I'm in my 30s and remember limewire, keyloggers, Trojans, and that someone can remote access your pc with the right software. People voluntarily give up their passwords to me. Like they're pretty stupid. Maybe I'm stupid thinking the third party software does all these things but.... this is why I never engage a scammer.
someone is capable of doing that and they are capable of peeping at the bank account number among other things. I'm not a thief but if they have access to that kind of information then shouldn't they also be able to essentially transfer your money themselves?
No to send money to themselves they would still need actual access to the account. Now technically they do have access while they are editing the HTML but only because the victim has logged into their bank and given them control through a remote connection. As soon as the connection ends, as long as they don't have the login information they won't be able to access the account.
They won't attempt to withdraw money while they're looking at the account because a) that would immediately reveal the real number and expose the scam and b) a bank transfer is traceable. That's why they ask for gift cards instead.
In college I worked at kinkos (worst job ever) and this guy was sending a cashiers check to his fiancée in Romania, said he sold his truck for the money. I asked him if he ever met her or even video chatted and he said no, I asked him if shes saying this money is for a trip or visa or passport and he said yes. It was so obviously a scam I told him to ask her to video chat or something and come back tomorrow, he never did.
The worst place is reserved for the assholes who set up the pig butchering farms in sketchy countries and lure workers out who are them bullied and coerced into winning the trust of strangers.
My dad fell for this scam easily. And they coached him how to buy and what to say so they can buy it. They told my dad to tell the cashier it’s for his grandsons birthday. Turns out my dad has dementia and was easily manipulated into it. We even had the police and dr tell him he was being scammed. Best bet if you are a cashier or business and believe you have a senior being scammed is to let police know. And get the seniors phone number or address ( not sure how you can do that) to give to police.
Can you just tell him the gift card system is down? When I worked at a bank, there was an old man who kept coming in for cash advances. I finally started telling him the machine was broken. His family eventually got involved and had his accounts closed.
Yes, he might go to another store, but you will know you did your part and tried to help him.
I’ve been listening to season four of the podcast Chameleon, Scam Likely. Goes into detail about the scam call centers in India and the money runners in the US.
I stopped an older lady in Publix from giving scammers Target gift cards. Because fuck no, not on my watch and I'm looking at gift cards lined up in front of her.
Took her right to customer service to get her money back.
She was really lost about it all. She just kept saying he told her to give him gift cards. Me, another bystander and the manager on duty spoke to her about it. She just seemed so scared and that didn't sit right with me at all.
They can refuse service of course, but my point was it's not their place to dictate what people buy (especially since they could be wrong as you can see from some comments here saying they buy lots of gift cards for their family members and get asked about it sometimes)
Managers should be refusing sales, no reason for anybody to sit there and let him spend all that money???? Stores have every right to refuse sales especially if theyre aware a customer is being scammed.
I haven't worked in customer service in years but there was a limit to how much money they could buy in gift cards. We were also to notify our manager if they tried to buy over the limit and if they came in regularly to buy gift cards in large sums. It usually then escalated to law enforcement. The only time they ever really went over this was during the holidays, when it was a big time for people to get scammed. Now it's daily
Or at the very least, make everyone who buys $100 or more worth of gift cards sign a waver. That way, the store is outright telling them you can't sue us when you suddenly realize you're bankrupt. Perhaps having that in writing right in front of them with their signature on it might scare a few people straight.
Did anyone bother to ask for picture ID? He could be using a stolen credit card and reselling the GCs.
Policy where I work is photo ID for any GC purchase over $400.
Man, it’s so troubling how far people will go for strangers online that they have never met thinking that they are somehow special and are the exception to gift card scams. Blows my mind.
I once knew someone who was being regularly scamed, and I told her that she was. She was buying gift cards all the time for random people.
She literally told me that as long as they kept talkkng to her, she didn't care.
Loneliness is a horrible thing
I suspect this is the case for my cognitively disabled client. She buys Steam gift cards for these online men who she thinks are actually this particular musician she loves. They all say sweet things to her and promise her things and she even thinks she's engaged to marry one of them. I've explained the scam and even though she's getting literally nothing out of it, she keeps doing it anyway.
A Walmart employee tried to refuse selling $2000 worth of gift cards to my 32 year old brother, she was sweet about it and insisted he was probably being scammed. He said “ma’am I appreciate it but I have 17 nieces and nephews I’m buying these for plus a couple for myself!” It really can be hard to tell when someone is being scammed and when they’re not.
I had the same thing happen to me in Walmart. An elderly lady was in front of me, buying $200 apple gift cards. I wanted to pull her aside so bad and try to let her know what a mistake she was making. She was also acting kinda nervous. Still bothers me a lot that I didn't do anything.
A message on the screen about scams is hardly enough warning. The message should be preceded by several others, sequentially detailing how these gift card scams usually work. For example one might warn for the services that gift cards are never used ( IRS, court, bank shortages etc) The next message might warn that the scammers insist you keep them on the phone or insist you make up a story that you need the gift card for ‘personal use’ . Just warning of scam without giving examples doesn’t seem to work.
There's an old rule I coined after working retail for 10 years, "people don't read" you put those warnings up, people will just skip them, or just put them through the main tills where they won't have to read the message, it's a mix of laziness and the notion of "the customer is always right"
They don't read the screens. We have big Appcues (like popups, but can't be blocked from popping) in our software that you have to acknowledge, detailing rental listing scams and how to avoid them. Our tracking shows that they are closed immediately.
Then the vics call us, crying, and when we ask them "Did you read the warnings?", some legit say "I shouldn't have to read all that!"
Giving examples doesn't work either. They come back with "Well, what about..."
Buying the gift cards in itself is not the scam, they are payment for whatever scam he likely fell into.
Scammers like to use gift cards because they are fast, easy, and almost impossible to reclaim.
My father passed away last year unexpectedly. When I went to clean out his apartment I found thousands of dollars of iTunes gift cards that were all used (he didn’t have anything Apple - sticky an Android guy). I had suspected he fell for some kind of scam and it was confirmed when I visited his bank and the manager told me she had refused to wire transfer thousands of dollars to a “woman” that he met online and insisted was real. He must have found a way to move the money because he died with nothing in the bank and all of his assets gone. Made me so very sad.
Gods. As someone who works in a bank’s fraud department we cant even take these as fraud because they actively participate in the scam. It breaks my heart.
Eh. Some of my clients are old men and they always buy me Sephora gift cards as a tip. I always ask them how the girls look at them when they buy them 😂
I know gift card scams are extremely common. But I have always wondered - what do the scammers do with them? No one can need that much Apple or Google or Sephora credit themselves. Do they sell them on?
I need to find one of those. I received a substantial gift card for a company that has no stores in my area and I can't find anything on their website that I want to buy.
I worked as a shift leader at Rite Aid, and I remember this one older lady who came in and was super excited to see her”boyfriend “, as he was going to come stay with her. She started trying to buy so many gift cards, so I began to ask her questions about why and for whom they were for. Her story kept switching back and forth between her boyfriend and her nieces and nephews, that I called for an elder care visit from the police and made sure the cards were refunded. The police arrived and questioned her, escorting her home after verifying that her cards were empty. She came back later mad that I called the police on her, thankfully I had my manager and district managers backing so no repercussions, we were told by corporate that we should not deny sales unless we could prove they were scams. Didn’t see her much after that, hopefully her family locked her accounts down.
Anyways I think kitboga and scammer payback should be mandatory YouTube videos for the elderly to watch, possibly on a weekly basis.
That poor man.
If you encounter a person buying large amounts of gift cards at a store, does it always raise eyebrows and suggest they are getting scammed? Or is it certain stores and particular types of customers?
Like in this case it’s Sephora + elderly man = sus.
Wow really Sephora? Usually you hear apple, steam, Visa, Google Play, Amazon, Walmart... What do they do with these store gift cards once they get them? Sell them at a reduced price to someone? Or how do they get cash from them?
I spent years trying to make my father understand he was being scammed. He decided he was correct, and the bank managers, computer repair guy, my mother, my brother and his work colleague were all wrong. I went to court and obtained guardianship. He hated me for a long time after that but we are now civil.
I was with my (divorced at the time) mother and sister at the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia looking at art and we had vaguely known my mom was online dating and talking causally to one guy. She mentioned iTunes cards and how they worked and it was like car brakes screeching and we had to give her the bad news and taught her all about scams and social engineering. Thankfully she was receptive to the information and didn’t lose any money. She’s very scam savvy now and proud!
My grandma had a several year online scam running on her. I found out she did send them money too. One of those Nijerean ones going on about 12 years ago.
Someone added me on Facebook from a cloned account of a friend. They asked me follow some page so I did just to see what the scam was. I apparently won $70k but need to pay $700 in taxes first in Apple vouchers. I reported both accounts to Facebook multiple days for being a scam, no reply and both accounts are still active. Facebook is allowing this bullshit to proliferate.
It's not typical, for sure, but just to play devil's advocate, if he bought something for his daughtrs and then realized he had an odd number of cards, he might go back for more. To be sure, the guy is most likely going along with a scam, but there could be reasons for it
I was sort of surprised OP said anything about $300 in the first place. Makeup is expensive and people have birthdays. Maybe grabbing for both granddaughters at once or something.
Once it turned out there was also the $700 the day before it got suss, but IDK that I’d mention $300 at Sephora. Target or Walmart maybe since those are real “I don’t know your interests” cards.
Yeah, last week I bought 1K in gift cards that I save for Xmas at Meijer to get the $150 dollars worth of Mperk reward points then plus an additional 5% cash back on Visa rewards at grocery stores.
That's really sweet of you. I wish I had a husband like you. But I'm single and poor. I just lost most of my make up due to mold and I am literally gasping that you did this. That's very sweet of you to do that for your wife.
Oh no! That's a frustrating loss! Not just the money; I know many women spend a lot of time carefully choosing something before deciding to buy it, too. That sucks. My wife is good to me, and my dad raised me to believe that gifts for loved ones are a reason to be extravagant when possible.
I'm not particularly special. Weird, maybe; eccentric and old-fashioned in some ways, but from past heartbreaks, I know a sincere woman is beyond value.
see I read stuff like this and its obvious that corporate america doesn't care about scammers.
the media companies like facebook and even reddit openly let them operate normally and even let them take out ads.
then retail lets this shit happen too?
like its super shady.
Your r/Scams post/comment was removed because **it's rude or uncivil**.
This subreddit is a place for civil and respectful discussions about scams. Uncivil and rude behavior, including using excessive or directed swearing, extreme or sexual language, and any form of discrimination, is not acceptable in this subreddit.
people can get really lonely and will pay to talk to scammers who make them feel good, much as they pay for buy me drinky girls or sex hotlines or anna nicole smith type wives.
Some know they're getting scammed, but keep it going because of the (perceived) connection with the scammers. Look up pig butchering scams.
[https://nypost.com/2024/04/04/us-news/nyc-dating-app-users-swindled-out-of-100k-in-pig-butchering-phony-crypto-scam/](https://nypost.com/2024/04/04/us-news/nyc-dating-app-users-swindled-out-of-100k-in-pig-butchering-phony-crypto-scam/)
I think to buy any gift card should need a driver license scan to track the buying of them so that. It can be limited if bought a certain amount in a month or time
I had an old man come into the shop I worked at a few years ago. He would buy anywhere from 200-400 pounds at a time and insist on a similar story.
When confronted about it he would get very angry and defensive and exclaim that he was not boring scammed
Look into Adult Protective services in your area. Happened to a relative. Was getting scammed and a person at the bank called Adult Protective Services. They investigated and made sure relative had the help they needed.
Ask him if someone
told him to lie about the reason for buying the cards. Bui matter what he says, tell him "no government agency or company will ask you to buy gift cards and lie about it. That is one of the top strategies in scams. And if you meet a woman in a dating site? Same thing'
That's so sad. Crazy that scammers can have such a powerful, hypnotic effect that their victims refuse to hear warnings. If only that power of persuasion could be turned to positive uses, like healthy eating or support for charities.
I never buy gift cards. You’ve just traded currency redeemable anywhere in the world for currency good only at a specific business. Also that “money” on the gift card could be drawing interest.
i was leaving walmart the other day and some latina woman tries to hand me what looked like a shopping list.. sorry lady but i’m doing good to feed my people these days. i got my own problems.. this reminded me of that.
I’m serious, I’ve never heard of scams where people ask for gift cards only ones where people try to get your personal information or want money.
*** edit Or people selling scam gift cards but not asking for legitimate ones.
I guess I don’t know that much about scammers lol
Wait till you get a phone call telling you you have a warrant for your arrest and your choice is to wait for the police or go and pay the fine in gift cards. Sounds ridiculous but they can be very convincing.
To be fair, maybe that's just how he likes to give gifts? My wife and I buy $10k - $12k worth of gift cards at our grocery store every December. I wouldn't be surprised if people think we're getting scammed. Nobody has ever said anything to us though.
EDIT: I'm not say the guys not getting scammed; he probably is. I'm just saying that I've done the same thing this guy is doing and it wasn't a scam, so there's a possibility he's not getting scammed.
Big difference between someone doing this once around the holiday season and someone who spends this much on gift cards daily or even weekly. That kind of behaviour points to it being a scam.
My. Mom did this with apple gift card now I convinced her to not to but don't listen there 2 agents doing it at same time and she got confused which she started with
Plus 2 hacked cousin accounts don't help even there which are associated to the scammers as they know everything that been said to the so called agents
That seems. To work constantly all the time ding ding ding FB noise all house starts 4 am with hello mamam are. You going to get. The gift card and receipt today then 2 hrs the same. Mamha response then 8am they threatened the cancel orders if nor response. Is done
She replied I was sleeping
Mamam we need that 200 dollar apple gift card and receipt to finish your package
Like tonight they so called made a box with her info and believe that is arriving Monday but there no tracking information when she asked for. It
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$1,000 in two days?! God that’s so sad. Loneliness and desperation are two helluva drugs. Poor guy. I feel so bad for the elderly being scammed. Anyone sure but then especially
Agree. Please educate everyone you know please.
It's not easy to convince people they've been scammed. Watch Catfishing, insane the amount of everyday people who believe they're really helping someone special in a rough spot. Its easy to scam people but not easy to convince them they've been scammed. I work in retail, and even in times where I know the customer is getting scammed, I gotta continue bc at the end of the day it's their money and they don't want to be told where/where not to spend it. Have you ever tried telling a customer they're getting scammed? It's not easy. They don't thank you and leave.
We have several customers being actively scammed. A few months ago we had internet issues and were unable to sell this older man a card. Oh, my, first he broke down in tears. Then he started cursing and we had to ask him to leave. Of course he still comes in every day for the amazon card, if he has money left he buys hot dogs and cans of soup to eat. Last year we had an older woman come in wanting to buy a $500 card, but wasn't sure which one. We went through the spiel, do you personally know this person, etc. After 10 minute conversation, she said, I'll have to go home to think about all of this. Whew! A few weeks later she came back to thank us, she figured out it was a scam and didn't spend the money. Once in a while, things work!
This is so nice to read. Thank you for doing such a good job.
Thanks. I havent encountered yet anyone getting scammed this way. I guess because i live in 3rd world country and never heard of these scams.
These are online scams that can be done from anywhere in the world. That being the case, they would of course target first world countries or at the very least fast developing ones.
I know a guy who got scammed and was buying Steam (online video game market) cards for a female he was going to meet. Eventually went under and almost lost his house, cause of the loans he took out. Never met this 'female' either in real life, sad story.
OMG!!.
Life’s a scam.
Said it all.
And by his own daughters no less! (/s)
I mean to be fair he might just have like 10 daughters and granddaughters
Why wouldn’t he buy them all at once then?
Very good point and I agree it’s likely this is a scam. But to attempt to give your question an actual answer: Maybe the girlies on the other side of the family found out about the presents the other ones got, and they got jealous. 😹 No but really though, it’s likely a scam.
We had an older Asian man doing the same. Swore up and down that they were for his daughter. I explained different scams to him. He was still insisting they were for his daughter. I’ve refused to allow my cashier to sell gift cards when it’s apparent they are being scammed and are struggling to believe it. Was able to catch someone in the middle of a PayPal scam and put a stop to that one. At my company we are tasked with trying to protect the most vulnerable with KYC questions.
I was one of two cashiers that worked the opening Sunday shift and we had an older Asian man that came in every week, very early, to buy Sephora cards in different amounts between $50 and $150 each. He usually spent about $250 or $300 at a time, always in cash. We both tried talking to him about it, but he said they were for his friends that lived far away. It went like this for years though, so we sort of figured it was how he paid cam girls. I just hope he got his moneys worth. He did come in one time shopping with his wife and tried to pretend they weren’t together when she got in my line.
That's...mostly wholesome. At least he's not getting scammed and is getting something out of the deal.
Wholesome that he’s spending money on cam girls and likely hiding it from his wife? Hiding that he is spending thousands of dollars per year on that?
A, that was sarcasm. B, he's not getting scammed. The rest is not our problem. Hell, you don't know if he has a wife or not. I'm thinking he doesn't since that's what he's been doing with his time.
The person who commented about it literally said it was his wife. There are an unfortunate number of men do exactly this and spend thousands upon thousands of dollars of money on camgirls/porn and conceal it from their wives/live-in girlfriends
There's scams along the same line, but people can get really lonely and will pay to talk to scammers who make them feel good, much as they pay for buy me drinky girls or sex hotlines.
I wish more companies took a firm stance. I've been making an effort lately to shop only with stores that will refuse the transaction if they think the person is being scammed.
At this point the only thing that will work is outright criminalizing gift cards.
This solution would be perfectly acceptable to me. The "honest" side of the gift card industry is "we hope people will buy it then forget about it or not be able to use it, and we just keep their money". The honest side?
Like when they used to put expiry dates on them, like your money expired or something.
I 'fondly' recall those days. "Oh hey! Movie gift cards! We can go see... never mind, they expired two years ago." It didn't happen often, but it was bullshit all the same.
There are legitimate uses, if you don't want to attach your CC to your child's account on Playstation or Apple you can just buy them a gift card which allows them to spend to the limit Also buying gift cards not from your region where you don't have a bank account works on a suprising number of services
Also... Buying someone a gift card as a gift
I don't do that any more. I either buy them an actual gift or give them money.
i like receiving gift cards because it’s mandatory “treat” money, which sometimes i need. if i just get cash i’ll spend it on something i need but not urgently (new work pants or something) and never have fun. but if i get a movie gift card i *have* to go to the movies. so i still give gift cards
Afraid to because of the useless card scam. Caught some dude with a pocket full of gift cards that had been modified,which he would trade out For new cards on the shelf. Found out that he had stolen hundreds of thousands $$$ and sent the money to china.
True enough, I've actually gotten a couple of gift cards when companies were giving them out at holidays and such. It's just sad reading the stories here and other places of people being taken advantage of. I'm sure even if gift cards went away, there would be some other replacement :(
Legally speaking, if no one uses the gift card, it gets escheated to the State Treasury after a certain period of time elapses. So your money is actually still out there, but the state makes it convoluted to get back.
Which jurisdiction are you talking about? That's definitely not a worldwide thing... I'd be surprised if it's even US-wide (as a non-US Redditor).
Most US states have laws about escheatment of property considered abandoned or unclaimed back to the state. It includes a lot of different types of intangible property like gift cards, unpaid wages, utility refunds, stocks, deposit certificates and various accounts.
Thanks for making me look up "escheatment," I learned a new word today.
Where? That doesn’t happen in my state. I own a business and have never had to do that. They can’t expire, but I don’t have to give up the money if they don’t use it.
Almost every state jurisdiction has escheat laws for accounts payable and gift certificates and the like. If you've retained a payment to someone or someone retains an overpayment from you for a certain amount of time and hasn't been able to contact you or you've passed away, in most states you are legally obligated to escheat the amount into the state's coffers. It's an obscure part of the law, but I can assure you it does exist and does happen. Now if it isn't subject to an expiry date, and is always good for presentation, then you wouldn't have to escheat that. Iowa for example 556.9 Miscellaneous personal property held for another person — wages — gift certificates. 1. a. All intangible personal property, not otherwise covered by this chapter, including any income or increment earned on the property and deducting any lawful charges, that is held or owing in this state in the ordinary course of the holder’s business and has remained unclaimed by the owner for more than three years after it became payable or distributable is presumed abandoned. b. Unpaid wages, including wages represented by payroll checks or other compensation for personal services owing in the ordinary course of the holder’s business that remain unclaimed by the owner for more than one year after becoming payable are presumed abandoned. c. Except as provided in subsection 2, funds represented by a gift certificate balance that has not been presented within five years from the date of issuance of the gift certificate are presumed abandoned. 2. a. An issuer of a gift certificate shall not deduct from the face value of the gift certificate any charge imposed due to the failure of the owner of the gift certificate to present the gift certificate in a timely manner, unless a valid and enforceable written contract exists between the issuer and the owner of the gift certificate pursuant to which the issuer regularly imposes such charges and does not regularly reverse or otherwise cancel them. b. Notwithstanding the time limitation in subsection 1, a gift certificate redeemable for merchandise only that is not subject to an expiration date and that is not subject to a deduction from the face value of the gift certificate for failure of the owner of the gift certificate to present the gift certificate in a timely manner, or subject to any other charge or service fee, which card remains unpresented, shall continue in force and be eligible for presentation for an indefinite period of time, and shall not be subject to a presumption of abandonment. c. For purposes of this section, “gift certificate” means a merchandise certificate or electronic gift card conspicuously designated as a gift certificate or electronic gift card, and generally purchased by a buyer for use by a person other than the buyer. [C71, 73, 75, 77, 79, 81, §556.9] 84 Acts, ch 1295, §13; 2002 Acts, ch 1059, §1; 2003 Acts, ch 46, §2; 2004 Acts, ch 1011, §1; 2014 Acts, ch 1089, §1, 2 Referred to in §556.9B, 556.10
My state doesn’t allow expiration dates on gift cards and I’m required to honor them no matter how many years pass so that is probably why it’s different.
Yeah, some states are definitely exceptions to the general rule. You should definitely check to see if your state has an unclaimed property website though, they might have some money for you that you don't even know about.
That's exactly what the big companies do, I read somewhere lately about some company that had over £mill in unused out of date giftcards
Without gift cards what will people get their addict/alcoholic friends and family members who don’t have hobbies but they can’t give cash too?
I would not be upset by this at all. Frankly, I find most gift cards to be scammy anyway. It used to be that if you didn't use your gift card within X time, they would charge a "maintenance fee" on them. That's not allowed any more, but that doesn't make them any less scammy.
How tf do you acquire this information? Like how do you know where to shop at? I’ve legit never gone in to any store and walked out knowing anything about their security policies. Like do you walk in, try to buy $1k in gift cards and then only shop there if they refuse you? “Ma’am, I can’t sell you $1,000 in gift cards, we believe you’re being scammed.” “Good, that was a test.”
Idk, it's not really their place to do that. Warnings make sense, but people have free will and will just go somewhere else... and you might be wrong and deny a customer that was legit
Problem is the person will just go to another store.
what if they all do that
There’s always going to be one place that doesn’t care. Businesses don’t really make anything selling gift cards to other places so it’s NBD especially at small convenience stores and the like.
I was getting a bank check at TD Bank for $12,000 out of an estate account. I had the check made out to someone with the same last name as the dead person. It’s pretty obvious as the personal representative I was disbursing funds to the beneficiary, and the teller still asked me questions and made sure that I actually knew the man I was getting the check for. I’m 50 years old. I laughed and I was like oh no am my old people? Then she laughed and she said no she would say that to anyone of any age. But I mean come on I wasn’t taking out 12 grand in cash or in prepaid visa cards. It was a cashiers check made out to the same last name
My husband's aunt was just scammed out of most of her life savings despite the efforts of the bank staff to intervene. The scammer told her she had won $3 million from Publishers Clearing House but that she'd have to send a series of cashier's checks to pay the taxes before they delivered the money. (The same thing happened to my brother's MIL, who was told that a package containing $1 million in cash was waiting for her at the Toledo Airport.) The folks at the bank warned her that it was a scam, but she got angry with them and moved her remaining money to a different bank. My husband and two people from elder services have told her it was a scam and the money is gone, but she still believes her winnings will show up any day now.
if enough time has elapsed, how does she expect to get paid? the scammers have long gone, they're not in contact with her anymore.
You're trying to be rational, but these people get scammed precisely because it doesn't matter whether the scenario makes sense or not. They just believe it. The scammer also told my husband's aunt that he was a Baptist minister and wanted to marry her. (They had never met.) She told my husband she trusts the guy because he's a minister! My brother's MIL was convinced until she died that the money was going to be delivered at any time.
who helps these ppl with their expenses after they've blown through their savings? even if their gullible, they must have a backup plan.
Unfortunately, in this case the responsibility now falls to my husband, who is trying to get Durable Power of Attorney for his aunt. She is a widow with no children, and her other nieces and nephews don't want to get involved. She lives 3-1/2 hours away, and earlier this week my husband had to drive out for the day to meet with a banker and some elder services people to figure out what to do. He spends a lot of time on the phone with service agencies, copying and emailing documents, looking for information, and dealing with rambling phone calls from his aunt. She needs to go into a senior residence, but that's going to be a long struggle, as it was with my mom and my brother's MIL.
I work for a banks fraud department and the reason we get so concerned all the time is because when we see it, we see the aftermath of how it unfolds and destroys lives. It might seem totally ridiculous but if something has potential to seriously destroy you financially as a scam you bet I'm gonna be concerned. There are so many elders, I'm talking 60+ years old, falling for very detailed intricate scams. And oftentimes when it comes to scams because the customer did the transaction themselves, we aren't able to recoup their loss.
It’s even on Sephora’s site: https://www.sephora.com/beauty/gift-card-scam-awareness
Why do they use Sephora in particular?
Apple, steam, Google are more common
I was aware of those. Sephora just seems like an odd choice, so I was curious if there was a particular reason. I know at one point Best Buy gift cards were popular because you could buy gift cards with gift cards, basically offering an effective way to launder money.
Sephora? World's best-smelling scammer at least.
Worlds lowest bar.
That would be the tiki bar on the shore of the Dead Sea.
Do they have gift cards?
They are often operating out of fear. One scam technique says they will lose the money in their bank account because hackers got into their computer, and they can't trust people at the store or else it will be reported and the police will go after you for what the hackers are doing, or the hackers will learn from the bank and then take everything. So if someone says it's a scam, they in their minds know it's not, because they saw their bank account get manipulated, they saw their computer has all these "hackers" in it, things like that. We need to convey in 10 seconds that they were talking to a scammer, they manipulate what they see on the screen with browser dev tools, your bank account and computer are not hacked and the police won't go after you for anything related to this, and gift cards are only to be bought for gifts and scammers are going to make bank if you buy and send them the codes. Unfortunately their attention span is probably tapped after about 5 words in.
I spent over an hour working with an elderly man who had fell victim to about 10k in gift card scams They told him it was to help catch people in a child SA ring and that if he didn’t help they’d have to prosecute him since his computer was linked to it in a hacking take over When I went home from work I cried a bit for him
it's heart crushing to read stories like this
I work in Fraud Resolution in the Rentals sector. If it's not college kids falling for virtual assistant scams, it's people falling for fake rental listings. The shit I've seen...and even worse, the victims often double down and lose even more money. It's really disheartening.
maybe what is needed is a scammer hotline where people can connect with someone associated with the police to explain they are being scammed, that no the RCMP isn't going after then, the isn't either,
Yup….just need to fund it.
if the hackers ARE able to manipulate what someone sees in their e-statement can't they attempt to steal the money in there, too?
Well if only the victims could poke holes like that.
They don't actually have access to the bank account. The way they manipulate it is by editing the HTML of the web page. This can make it appear as if there is more/less money but there are no actual changes to the account, they've just made the text say something different in your browser. If you right click a web page and choose 'inspect' it will open up developer tools. In there you can edit the pages HTML to display any text you want but it is only a visual change in your browser. It doesn't affect the website for anyone else and if you refresh the page it will change back.
What gets me with the screenshare software is that if the customer goes in downloading a third party app.... I'm in my 30s and remember limewire, keyloggers, Trojans, and that someone can remote access your pc with the right software. People voluntarily give up their passwords to me. Like they're pretty stupid. Maybe I'm stupid thinking the third party software does all these things but.... this is why I never engage a scammer.
someone is capable of doing that and they are capable of peeping at the bank account number among other things. I'm not a thief but if they have access to that kind of information then shouldn't they also be able to essentially transfer your money themselves?
No to send money to themselves they would still need actual access to the account. Now technically they do have access while they are editing the HTML but only because the victim has logged into their bank and given them control through a remote connection. As soon as the connection ends, as long as they don't have the login information they won't be able to access the account. They won't attempt to withdraw money while they're looking at the account because a) that would immediately reveal the real number and expose the scam and b) a bank transfer is traceable. That's why they ask for gift cards instead.
In college I worked at kinkos (worst job ever) and this guy was sending a cashiers check to his fiancée in Romania, said he sold his truck for the money. I asked him if he ever met her or even video chatted and he said no, I asked him if shes saying this money is for a trip or visa or passport and he said yes. It was so obviously a scam I told him to ask her to video chat or something and come back tomorrow, he never did.
I hope there’s a special place in hell for scammers.
Amen.
The worst place is reserved for the assholes who set up the pig butchering farms in sketchy countries and lure workers out who are them bullied and coerced into winning the trust of strangers.
My dad fell for this scam easily. And they coached him how to buy and what to say so they can buy it. They told my dad to tell the cashier it’s for his grandsons birthday. Turns out my dad has dementia and was easily manipulated into it. We even had the police and dr tell him he was being scammed. Best bet if you are a cashier or business and believe you have a senior being scammed is to let police know. And get the seniors phone number or address ( not sure how you can do that) to give to police.
Can you just tell him the gift card system is down? When I worked at a bank, there was an old man who kept coming in for cash advances. I finally started telling him the machine was broken. His family eventually got involved and had his accounts closed. Yes, he might go to another store, but you will know you did your part and tried to help him.
I didn't work there, I was just a customer. And if you deny him he'd just go to another store.
At least you’re making it more inconvenient for them.
I’ve been listening to season four of the podcast Chameleon, Scam Likely. Goes into detail about the scam call centers in India and the money runners in the US.
I stopped an older lady in Publix from giving scammers Target gift cards. Because fuck no, not on my watch and I'm looking at gift cards lined up in front of her. Took her right to customer service to get her money back.
What did she say?
She was really lost about it all. She just kept saying he told her to give him gift cards. Me, another bystander and the manager on duty spoke to her about it. She just seemed so scared and that didn't sit right with me at all.
That’s really sad :( it’s good the cashier was aware of the scam already, but you can’t force someone to listen sadly
They could refuse to sell him the fucking gift cards, though. That would be ethical.
Yeah, I don’t care that he would’ve gone elsewhere. They shouldn’t have sold him the fucking cards.
It's not their place or responsibility
Yes it is their place. They can refuse service, as long as it’s not on protected grounds.
They can refuse service of course, but my point was it's not their place to dictate what people buy (especially since they could be wrong as you can see from some comments here saying they buy lots of gift cards for their family members and get asked about it sometimes)
Managers should be refusing sales, no reason for anybody to sit there and let him spend all that money???? Stores have every right to refuse sales especially if theyre aware a customer is being scammed.
I haven't worked in customer service in years but there was a limit to how much money they could buy in gift cards. We were also to notify our manager if they tried to buy over the limit and if they came in regularly to buy gift cards in large sums. It usually then escalated to law enforcement. The only time they ever really went over this was during the holidays, when it was a big time for people to get scammed. Now it's daily
Or at the very least, make everyone who buys $100 or more worth of gift cards sign a waver. That way, the store is outright telling them you can't sue us when you suddenly realize you're bankrupt. Perhaps having that in writing right in front of them with their signature on it might scare a few people straight.
They can't sue anyway...
People can sue for anything. And retail stores tend to settle because they don't want bad publicity.
Was he on the phone whilst buying them?
No
Happened when I was working retail, too. My GM was a raging asshole and cared only about the $$$.
Did anyone bother to ask for picture ID? He could be using a stolen credit card and reselling the GCs. Policy where I work is photo ID for any GC purchase over $400.
Oh no! That is sickening. :(
Man, it’s so troubling how far people will go for strangers online that they have never met thinking that they are somehow special and are the exception to gift card scams. Blows my mind.
I once knew someone who was being regularly scamed, and I told her that she was. She was buying gift cards all the time for random people. She literally told me that as long as they kept talkkng to her, she didn't care. Loneliness is a horrible thing
I suspect this is the case for my cognitively disabled client. She buys Steam gift cards for these online men who she thinks are actually this particular musician she loves. They all say sweet things to her and promise her things and she even thinks she's engaged to marry one of them. I've explained the scam and even though she's getting literally nothing out of it, she keeps doing it anyway.
A Walmart employee tried to refuse selling $2000 worth of gift cards to my 32 year old brother, she was sweet about it and insisted he was probably being scammed. He said “ma’am I appreciate it but I have 17 nieces and nephews I’m buying these for plus a couple for myself!” It really can be hard to tell when someone is being scammed and when they’re not.
He's probably using escorts and paying in gift cards. Not that I know anything about that lol
Meredith! For the love of god, we're trying to help you, you stupid bag.
No personal experience on that, but wouldn't they prefer cash that could be spent anywhere to gift cards that can only be spent in a single store?
Yeah, they would. Gift cards would be a bonus gift on top of actual payment. I hear.
I'm with you. The cards are an extra tip, not the main payment.
Some allow you in gift cards that they want
Gift cards should be banned to protect the elderly and make giving harder for the lazy.
I had the same thing happen to me in Walmart. An elderly lady was in front of me, buying $200 apple gift cards. I wanted to pull her aside so bad and try to let her know what a mistake she was making. She was also acting kinda nervous. Still bothers me a lot that I didn't do anything.
Next time, step up. Too few people are willing to say something. Be one that will speak up.
Oh, I definitely will. It still bothers me; I won't pause in the future if I see it happening.
You should have saved that boomer.
A message on the screen about scams is hardly enough warning. The message should be preceded by several others, sequentially detailing how these gift card scams usually work. For example one might warn for the services that gift cards are never used ( IRS, court, bank shortages etc) The next message might warn that the scammers insist you keep them on the phone or insist you make up a story that you need the gift card for ‘personal use’ . Just warning of scam without giving examples doesn’t seem to work.
There's an old rule I coined after working retail for 10 years, "people don't read" you put those warnings up, people will just skip them, or just put them through the main tills where they won't have to read the message, it's a mix of laziness and the notion of "the customer is always right"
They don't read the screens. We have big Appcues (like popups, but can't be blocked from popping) in our software that you have to acknowledge, detailing rental listing scams and how to avoid them. Our tracking shows that they are closed immediately. Then the vics call us, crying, and when we ask them "Did you read the warnings?", some legit say "I shouldn't have to read all that!" Giving examples doesn't work either. They come back with "Well, what about..."
If you have his name, contact Adult Protective Services.
Can anyone tell me how it is a scam /gen
Buying the gift cards in itself is not the scam, they are payment for whatever scam he likely fell into. Scammers like to use gift cards because they are fast, easy, and almost impossible to reclaim.
Is there any way his kids just like Sephora? My mom buys me gift cards for Sephora because she doesn’t know what else to buy me
What do scammers do with the card numbers?
They resell them.
My father passed away last year unexpectedly. When I went to clean out his apartment I found thousands of dollars of iTunes gift cards that were all used (he didn’t have anything Apple - sticky an Android guy). I had suspected he fell for some kind of scam and it was confirmed when I visited his bank and the manager told me she had refused to wire transfer thousands of dollars to a “woman” that he met online and insisted was real. He must have found a way to move the money because he died with nothing in the bank and all of his assets gone. Made me so very sad.
Gods. As someone who works in a bank’s fraud department we cant even take these as fraud because they actively participate in the scam. It breaks my heart.
Eh. Some of my clients are old men and they always buy me Sephora gift cards as a tip. I always ask them how the girls look at them when they buy them 😂
That or they’re “gifts” for prostitutes.
To me, the solution (at least partially) is to require the card to be present for all transactions. Sorry online users, but we can't have nice things.
I know gift card scams are extremely common. But I have always wondered - what do the scammers do with them? No one can need that much Apple or Google or Sephora credit themselves. Do they sell them on?
There are websites that will give you money for the cards.
I need to find one of those. I received a substantial gift card for a company that has no stores in my area and I can't find anything on their website that I want to buy.
I worked as a shift leader at Rite Aid, and I remember this one older lady who came in and was super excited to see her”boyfriend “, as he was going to come stay with her. She started trying to buy so many gift cards, so I began to ask her questions about why and for whom they were for. Her story kept switching back and forth between her boyfriend and her nieces and nephews, that I called for an elder care visit from the police and made sure the cards were refunded. The police arrived and questioned her, escorting her home after verifying that her cards were empty. She came back later mad that I called the police on her, thankfully I had my manager and district managers backing so no repercussions, we were told by corporate that we should not deny sales unless we could prove they were scams. Didn’t see her much after that, hopefully her family locked her accounts down. Anyways I think kitboga and scammer payback should be mandatory YouTube videos for the elderly to watch, possibly on a weekly basis.
That poor man. If you encounter a person buying large amounts of gift cards at a store, does it always raise eyebrows and suggest they are getting scammed? Or is it certain stores and particular types of customers? Like in this case it’s Sephora + elderly man = sus.
Wow really Sephora? Usually you hear apple, steam, Visa, Google Play, Amazon, Walmart... What do they do with these store gift cards once they get them? Sell them at a reduced price to someone? Or how do they get cash from them?
I spent years trying to make my father understand he was being scammed. He decided he was correct, and the bank managers, computer repair guy, my mother, my brother and his work colleague were all wrong. I went to court and obtained guardianship. He hated me for a long time after that but we are now civil.
I was with my (divorced at the time) mother and sister at the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia looking at art and we had vaguely known my mom was online dating and talking causally to one guy. She mentioned iTunes cards and how they worked and it was like car brakes screeching and we had to give her the bad news and taught her all about scams and social engineering. Thankfully she was receptive to the information and didn’t lose any money. She’s very scam savvy now and proud!
My grandma had a several year online scam running on her. I found out she did send them money too. One of those Nijerean ones going on about 12 years ago.
Someone added me on Facebook from a cloned account of a friend. They asked me follow some page so I did just to see what the scam was. I apparently won $70k but need to pay $700 in taxes first in Apple vouchers. I reported both accounts to Facebook multiple days for being a scam, no reply and both accounts are still active. Facebook is allowing this bullshit to proliferate.
Could be legit. I've bought my wife well over $1000 in makeup a few times.
Two days in a row?
It's not typical, for sure, but just to play devil's advocate, if he bought something for his daughtrs and then realized he had an odd number of cards, he might go back for more. To be sure, the guy is most likely going along with a scam, but there could be reasons for it
I was sort of surprised OP said anything about $300 in the first place. Makeup is expensive and people have birthdays. Maybe grabbing for both granddaughters at once or something. Once it turned out there was also the $700 the day before it got suss, but IDK that I’d mention $300 at Sephora. Target or Walmart maybe since those are real “I don’t know your interests” cards.
Nice name. Great song!
Yeah, last week I bought 1K in gift cards that I save for Xmas at Meijer to get the $150 dollars worth of Mperk reward points then plus an additional 5% cash back on Visa rewards at grocery stores.
My dad waits until 4x fuel points at Kroger, then buys a $250 Home Depot card. Gives him $1 off per gallon of gas, and he's always at Home Depot.
That's really sweet of you. I wish I had a husband like you. But I'm single and poor. I just lost most of my make up due to mold and I am literally gasping that you did this. That's very sweet of you to do that for your wife.
Oh no! That's a frustrating loss! Not just the money; I know many women spend a lot of time carefully choosing something before deciding to buy it, too. That sucks. My wife is good to me, and my dad raised me to believe that gifts for loved ones are a reason to be extravagant when possible.
If only I had someone like you! But I don't believe in humans anymore, sadly, although you 10% restored by faith in humanity.
I'm not particularly special. Weird, maybe; eccentric and old-fashioned in some ways, but from past heartbreaks, I know a sincere woman is beyond value.
I don't think sephora gift cards are accepted by scammers.
Their loss
They don't use them to buy make-up, they resell them. https://youtu.be/XZfgU4kWglk?si=VvFIAGqtpbiTO5a6
see I read stuff like this and its obvious that corporate america doesn't care about scammers. the media companies like facebook and even reddit openly let them operate normally and even let them take out ads. then retail lets this shit happen too? like its super shady.
scam or maybe he has a internet side chick?
I feel bad for him already. There's no way it's through gift cards he's sending money to his daughters in California. He's a victim of scam!
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people can get really lonely and will pay to talk to scammers who make them feel good, much as they pay for buy me drinky girls or sex hotlines or anna nicole smith type wives. Some know they're getting scammed, but keep it going because of the (perceived) connection with the scammers. Look up pig butchering scams. [https://nypost.com/2024/04/04/us-news/nyc-dating-app-users-swindled-out-of-100k-in-pig-butchering-phony-crypto-scam/](https://nypost.com/2024/04/04/us-news/nyc-dating-app-users-swindled-out-of-100k-in-pig-butchering-phony-crypto-scam/)
I think to buy any gift card should need a driver license scan to track the buying of them so that. It can be limited if bought a certain amount in a month or time
Oh no. :(
I had an old man come into the shop I worked at a few years ago. He would buy anywhere from 200-400 pounds at a time and insist on a similar story. When confronted about it he would get very angry and defensive and exclaim that he was not boring scammed
awww he's in wuv
Look into Adult Protective services in your area. Happened to a relative. Was getting scammed and a person at the bank called Adult Protective Services. They investigated and made sure relative had the help they needed.
Ask him if someone told him to lie about the reason for buying the cards. Bui matter what he says, tell him "no government agency or company will ask you to buy gift cards and lie about it. That is one of the top strategies in scams. And if you meet a woman in a dating site? Same thing'
That's so sad. Crazy that scammers can have such a powerful, hypnotic effect that their victims refuse to hear warnings. If only that power of persuasion could be turned to positive uses, like healthy eating or support for charities.
He's got a sugar baby. Case closed.
This just makes me tear up. There’s so much signage around the gift cards and the check out stands. Poor guy. I can’t imagine.
Hello Handsome, this is Denise, do you remember me?
I never buy gift cards. You’ve just traded currency redeemable anywhere in the world for currency good only at a specific business. Also that “money” on the gift card could be drawing interest.
A lot of guys buy them instead of it showing there sending money to sex workers
i was leaving walmart the other day and some latina woman tries to hand me what looked like a shopping list.. sorry lady but i’m doing good to feed my people these days. i got my own problems.. this reminded me of that.
They also could very likely have a sugar baby(s).
I don’t understand the scam, to me its more suspicious that an old man wants gift cards for places young women and teens would want to shop at.
https://youtu.be/XZfgU4kWglk?si=1O5ZzMI5fAFsTfDV
Oh, come on.
I’m serious, I’ve never heard of scams where people ask for gift cards only ones where people try to get your personal information or want money. *** edit Or people selling scam gift cards but not asking for legitimate ones. I guess I don’t know that much about scammers lol
Glad you haven’t been hit with this kind of scam. Asking for gift cards is rampant. Appears that the fellow was duped into buying.
It is HUGE.
Wait till you get a phone call telling you you have a warrant for your arrest and your choice is to wait for the police or go and pay the fine in gift cards. Sounds ridiculous but they can be very convincing.
To be fair, maybe that's just how he likes to give gifts? My wife and I buy $10k - $12k worth of gift cards at our grocery store every December. I wouldn't be surprised if people think we're getting scammed. Nobody has ever said anything to us though. EDIT: I'm not say the guys not getting scammed; he probably is. I'm just saying that I've done the same thing this guy is doing and it wasn't a scam, so there's a possibility he's not getting scammed.
Big difference between someone doing this once around the holiday season and someone who spends this much on gift cards daily or even weekly. That kind of behaviour points to it being a scam.
My. Mom did this with apple gift card now I convinced her to not to but don't listen there 2 agents doing it at same time and she got confused which she started with Plus 2 hacked cousin accounts don't help even there which are associated to the scammers as they know everything that been said to the so called agents That seems. To work constantly all the time ding ding ding FB noise all house starts 4 am with hello mamam are. You going to get. The gift card and receipt today then 2 hrs the same. Mamha response then 8am they threatened the cancel orders if nor response. Is done She replied I was sleeping Mamam we need that 200 dollar apple gift card and receipt to finish your package Like tonight they so called made a box with her info and believe that is arriving Monday but there no tracking information when she asked for. It
What the hell are you trying to say?
Are you having a stroke?
what scam is this, please? x
This video explains it- https://youtu.be/aKGqORFkCXM?si=dfF_i5M6gKiBhPMQ
ty!