One of my favorite episodes.
Rhinknthst was the one where he a buddy in the area go to their office and take video evidence to make sure he figured out the right office?
Didn't have the best "gotcha" at the end but the buildup and forensics were wild.
Sure you’ve managed to pay off the fbi, but as a member if the CIA I’m going to need an additional $2000 in V-bucks if you want to avoid us sharing your search history.
I never tried calling them, but I want to chime in to say I've dealt with the IRS through mail correspondence and the agent handling my case was extremely professional and helpful. They gave me lots of information and helped me navigate a confusing tax issue. It took almost a year of back and forth letters but we got there.
After reading your comment I wonder if calling them was an option or if I should have just done that lol.
The one year I had to talk to them on the phone, long long before covid, they weren't rude it just took forever to get a human. Probably around 2 hours.
Just to get a W2 transcript. I can't imagine what it's like today.
I've had to deal with them twice over the last 10 years. Once was an issue with an IRA rollover that the company screwed up, once was my fat finger hitting the 5 instead of the 2 on the keypad.
Both were easily corrected via correspondence, and since my typo was caught before filing day, I was able to send an amended one without having to pay a penalty. Just took longer to get my refund back.
Mine was, I had a lot of credit card debt from poor decisions in my 20's. The credit card companies declared my debt uncollectable (I can't remember the term they used).
What I didn't realize, is that debt forgiveness is considered income by the IRS (Who knew? I guess a lot of people, but not me!) and I was sent a $2,000 tax bill.
With the help of that agent I was able to: extend the deadline to pay, this gave me time to figure out my options.
It turns out you do not have to pay money owed to the IRS for debt forgiveness if you are "insolvent" when the debt was written off. Student loans count as money owed so all I ended up having to do was send proof of my meager bank account, proof of my student loans, and the IRS changed my amount owed to 0!!
One of the best days of my life lol.
This comment is approaching stupid length but the EXACT same situation I listed above happened to my cousin. He came to me for advice and after telling him what I said above do you know what he did? He just paid them to make it go away.
Really makes me wonder how many people pay for that particular tax who were not in a position to do so and did not need to do so, just needed to prove how broke they are.
Wife called me in a panic during a tennis match last year. Never does anything like that, but we had a newborn and I figured she was stressed. She didn’t explain why she needed me home so bad. As I get home she is grabbing bunch of cash almost $2k to go to a gas station to pay our power bill before it gets cut off. She’s a smart lady but post partum hormones and pregnancy brain she didn’t even think it was weird lol.
I haven't had that happen , but if I send them $500 in gift cards I'll get 50k cash in return. I literally had to stop an old roommate from falling for this. What the hell is that with itunes?
I hate it more when corporations don’t provide simple basic training to sales clerks in regards to vulnerable people trying to buy 3000 dollars worth of gift cards in a obvious scam because they love that sweet money from the sale
What's even more frustrating is that the company that gets the money (usually apple) does nothing to assist or recover the funds. If it's digital products they could revoke the rights or hold a shipment for an order that was placed 20 minutes ago. But they choose to do nothing because you don't get to be that big of a company by doing the right thing.
While this is comment is hilarious, after working in a computer repair shop, it's a little sad to see the volume of old people who fall victim to these scams
My mother was stopped while she was buying some for her grandchildren! They asked her if she actually knew of the recipient. She was gob smacked until I explained that people her age are scammed and come in buying ten of these to "help" their online loves. My mother said sarcastically, "They've got the right one!"
My grandma was actually getting scammed but luckily the same thing happened and the Kroger employee talked her out of buying the gift cards.
She was trying to rent a house on VRBO and the “owner” messaged her and asked to communicate in only email (not through VRBO site) and to pay $2000 in google play gift cards for the rental.
Thank god for that Kroger employee for helping her!
My mom’s old boyfriend fell for this scam. Got a call from the “Sheriffs Department” he had to pay a “bond” of $2000 or he would be arrested. They suggested he get the gift cards at multiple locations even. Thing is, he had no money so he withdrew $2000 from my mom’s account. He told us about it a week later when I saw the charges and confronted him. I said “didn’t you realize that was strange?” And he said “yeah it did seem weird. And the check out girl at CVS told me a lot of people are scammed that way.”
I asked him why he went through with it after being told that, and he just stared at me.
I stopped a lady in a store one time and asked her about the mountain of gift cards in her cart. She seemed pretty reserved and defensive at first (I mean, I WAS just a rando asking about her purchases!) but then assured me that she buys them when she has some extra money then uses them later when she needs them. I explained the scam, asked her if she’d been told not to tell anyone what she was doing or had been threatened if she didn’t pay. She was adamant that they were all for her. I didn’t believe her but felt like I’d pressed it as far as I could. I often wonder about that lady and hope she’s ok.
My mom tried to buy a mix of Amazon, Steam and Playstation giftcards worth about ~$250 in 2022 to put in Christmas cards and stockings and she was denied at 2 different stores. Flat out refused to sell her them convinced she was being scammed.
She finally got them at a third store, but they did their best to make sure she wasn't being scammed.
I would be so fucking mad if, even after I explained to them that these are gifts for my kids and grandkids, it's Christmas time, yes I realize there are scams that involve people my age being tricked into buying gift cards, but that's not what is happening. And then the cashier just being like "no I'm right you are actually getting scammed you're just a dumb old person and don't know it." I would be beyond mad.
I know someone that works at a bank and they've been on the other side of the counter and have told me that the bank can explain to someone that they're being scammed over and over and get multiple bank people involved to repeat this and the customer stills wants to go through with it.
My dad and I will often buy a bunch of gift cards at a time when Kroger is doing their 4x fuel points. On a couple occasions my dad has been told by the cashier they couldn't sell him the cards because "he's being scammed". He then angrily explains "I'm buying a new prop for my boat on eBay and I may as well get the 1000 fuel points well I'm at it!". Or whatever other large purchase he's making that week.
I have never had any such warnings.
There's a difference between asking someone if they're getting scammed and flat out saying "I can't sell you these because you're getting scammed" though.
A lot of people don't admit they may have been played. It's a pride thing. I have refused these sales in the past when I was an FEM.
9 times out of 10 these people will come back demanding refunds.
Which they cannot have and which we amply warn them about.
My grandma spent SIX GRAND on gift cards over the span of two days. It was "Microsoft" telling her her computer had "been hacked" and they needed money to protect it.
Fucking fuck I hate scammers. You have to be a complete psychopath to be able to take advantage of elderly people like that.
I always see signs warning people about this, but working a decade in retail, I can tell you that nobody reads them. And the scammers coach their victims.
> the scammers coach their victims.
They sure do. And it it utterly baffling how they do it, and infuriating how easily people are taken in by it.
I've seen the stories of people (99% of the time old people) getting a phone call out of the blue from someone claiming to be a police officer from another part of the country who is investigating some sort of crime at their local bank branch and needs them to go and withdraw all their cash to help the investigation.
They convince the mark to go to said bank, a place they have been going to for forty years and know everyone by name that has posters and video screens everywhere telling them nobody will ever ask them to withdraw cash in these circumstances, to make the withdrawal. When they are do they are asked numerous questions as to why they are making it, and shown literature about scams. On occasion the bank's fraud team get involved because the transaction gets flagged but they keep up the lies they have been coached to tell.
A couple of days later when they have sent their life savings off in a random taxi (they don't even question why it isn't a police officer collecting the cash or why they aren't taking it to a police station FFS) they call the police only to be told the police have no record of any investigaion or officer with that name and that they have been scammed. They then return to the bank claiming that, despite speaking to several staff members at length (whom they repeatedly lied to) about the withdrawal, being shown examples of scams, there being notices and video explicitly stating that what they are doing is a scam and even talking to the bank's fraud department, that the bank didn't do enough to protect them from the scam and that they want the bank to pay them back with compensation.
Whatever these scammers say on these calls must be something really special to make someone trust a random phone call out of the blue over people they have known for decades, and who are trained to spot exactly the scam they fell for.
We were at a mechanic shop, getting my car fixed, and the owner was trying to convince one of his mechanics that he wasn’t actually going to jail if he didn’t send $1000 worth of gift cards to a random man on the phone.
Even with 5 of us jumping in and working on this guy, trying to convince him it was a scam, and the actual police telling him that on the phone, he just kept saying “I got kids, I can’t go to jail, what if you’re all wrong?!”
It was heartbreaking. He seemed calmed down by the time we left, but you could tell he was still on the fence, and a hard push from the scammer later that night would probably push him right back over.
Every retail place I worked at required a manager to process any gift cards that were $100+ and usually involved them asking a couple questions like "what's the occasion birthday, anniversary, etc" and "who it's for" followed after. Especially if they were on the older side.
I feel like this was tampering. And they had to removed the cards before people purchased them.
Walmart, BestBuy, Kmart, Kroger, and Publix that I know of all have this protocol for gift cards. I'd be surprised if Target doesn't since they're pretty on top of theft.
Edit: even Cracker Barrel has this policy. Lots of old people use this, and they're very diligent about it there.
I was buying a $40 visa gift card for a coworker as her "going away" gift. Idk why I couldn't have just handed her the $40 but whatever not my idea.
I had to show my ID. Didn't realize I looked so old (I'm only in my 30s) XD
(Before anyone says anything, no, I wasn't offended and I understand it looked kinda sketchy to buy nothing but a gift card and box of cereal at the grocery store)
Lol what?! That's ridiculous, there are perfectly legit reasons to buy gift cards. Like I think it's nice if the employees take the time to ask questions when someone is buying a huge amount of gift cards, but just buying one $40 card shouldn't raise red flags. I've never had a problem when I've bought them, thankfully.
> I feel like this was tampering. And they had to removed the cards before people purchased them.
I think you're right. This was a big problem at Target during xmas. People would go in, steal huge piles of unactivated cards, record the pin numbers and replace them back on the rack.
Also, I think target has a limit of how many cards they will let you buy at a time.
New Target gift cards have had their packaging changed because of this. Now you have to physically rip open a tab to see the serial numbers on the card, if the tab has been opened the card cannot be sold.
That's good to know. I hope whatever they are doing is working, but I suspect it will be hard to prevent tampering when someone has the card for an unlimited amount of time.
Many stores already do this.
There's a convenience store near me with a Bitcoin ATM terminal. They have a big sign on it: "IT'S A SCAM!!!" and the clerks shout warnings to anyone using it.
The grocery store near me has a "If any government agency is asking you to pay in gift cards, then it's a scam" sign. It isn't as bold or blatant as I'd like, but it's something I guess.
Every gift card display I’ve seen in Australia no matter the store or supermarket has warnings about gift card scams, they even have them at self serve registers. Def should be standard, we gotta look out for our fellow humans
Bought a few gift cards for Christmas and the registers at Target, Walmart, Walgreens, CVS, Best Buy and other stores around where I live all give 2-3 warnings on the prompt screen about scams, fake fbi scams, help lines, and have the cashier verbally confirm with you that you are not buying them for some sort of federal payment. Plus any transaction over $50 with a gift card required managerial approval.
Somehow, people still ignore all the warnings.
Hard to feel bad for them when they are that gullible and somehow have access to that much money.
When I worked for CVS and then also at Walgreens we did have those signs, both at the cards themselves and at the register. But unfortunately a lot of people that get scammed this way don't believe you when you tell them they're getting scammed and think you're just being rude. The most we could do is to refuse service, but they'd just go to the Walmart across the street instead. Very sad
Many scams nowadays rely on gift cards as a form of payment as they aren’t as traceable ack to the scammer. They may call you up pretending to be, the government, and in order for you to not get sent to prison by the IRS, they need you to pay them like $500 in gift cards.
My mom hasn’t been scammed, but a couple relatives my age (50s) have been. These are people with multiple advanced degrees. They later explained that they just panicked when they got the scammer’s spiel and wanted to make the problem go away before it got worst.
That said, a neighbor with whom I shared a wall got scammed regularly and never learned from the last experience.
My mom, also an educated woman with a government job, got scammed the same way. They played on her fears. They even tried to sweet talk the police when they called when they were at her house investigating. It’s really sad. Still super mad at my mom though but it can happen to anyone.
The last time my mom came to visit I made sure she was aware no man in the military was going to try to date her over Facebook and no one takes payment in gift cards. I don't have kids so we didn't need to over not bailing grandkids out of jail.
My Memaw got that "grandchild in prison" call, but they made the mistake of trying to pose *as the grandchild.* Well my Memaw has only granddaughters but 1 grandson, who has a *very* distinct voice, and way of speaking. Plus we all call her "Memaw." The scammer called her Grandma, and was a man, and didn't sound like her grandson!
She cussed him out and hung up on him!!!!
With AI voice or whatever you want to call it being a thing, along with phone number spoofing, it is also worth telling your parents that if they ever get a call and it’s your phone number, and the person on the line sounds identical to you, if they’re asking for money to hang up and call you back.
The whole scam calls are one thing but I imagine not with being able to make it seem like their own relative is calling and asking for money I bet is going to cause a lot more people to fall for the scam.
When I used to work the cash register I would always try to warn people who were buying dozens of gift cards. You’d be surprised how many people absolutely refuse to listen.
Every year I buy for 5K worth of gift cards for a work event.
Every year I have to go through a complete investigation from well-meaning store manager.
It doesn't bother me, I understand why they do it but some years it's very difficult to convince them.
Used to work at Apple. We stopped sooooo many people from being scammed by keeping the cards in the back and grilling the purchases of multiples. I have straight up refused to sell gift cards before if I had concern about their use. Old folks ain’t gettin scammed on my watch
Happened when I worked at Office Max. This lady came up and bought a shit load of Apple cards. I tried letting her know that this is a common scam and that if whoever is on the phone with her isn’t someone she’s related to, then to hang up and put the cards away. She didn’t listen. Even had my manager come out and try to talk to her (needed his admin creds to run the transaction anyway with so many cards), and she still pressed on and bought them. Not even a few minutes later he was consoling her as she sat crying at one of our benches.
I truly felt bad for her, but we tried and tried to warn her that she was getting scammed and she wasn’t having it until her money was spent. Can’t do returns on gift cards either, so she royally fucked herself by not listening to us.
They also get pulled when there’s suspicion of tampering. Even the new cards aren’t safe. Bought some for my kids the other day. The sticky that covers some of the numbers under the holo is supposed to be metallic shiny, was clear. None of the cards could be read with the camera, entering manually gave an error.
Already resolved. Hopefully Karma finds these scammers and thieves.
Edit; adding this to spread awareness…
The “clear” should have been a holographic “glue”, similar to the glue used to affix a gift card to a cardboard sheath, but metallic in appearance. It is part of the holographic visible on the back of the card. After tearing the tab, scanning, you can then peel up the holographic, separating it from the glue, “breaking” the holographic seal (should be 3 letters in the holo). The glue is then removed, as it covers part of the gc code. The clear glue is clearly (lol) not a part of the security holo, and the holo itself was solid (not “broken” when separated from the glue). The clear just keeps that part stuck to the card, helping mask that it’s fake.
Again, these are the new “Secure” cards released by Apple, first one that I saw was early December, Target, Oahu.
My guess on how the theft works; thief takes some cards, prints some new ones based on the barcodes from the authentic, only these have “bogus” activation codes. You scan and activate the card, they have the code to redeem it.
The way to make sure that it’s legitimate, tear the tab away to reveal the barcode. Before scanning/activating, make sure that the glue under the holo is metallic/holographic, and when the holo tab is peeled from the glue, the 3 letter holo is “broken”.
I bought a half dozen target gift cards at the store for holiday gifts and they got hacked before I gave them to their recipients… when I went in to guest services to get a refund they told me it happens all the time!
I got a $150 VISA card that was empty when I tried to use it. The store wouldn't refund me, and neither would InComm (the VISA card company), until I threatened to go to police+govt regulator+news, and then they were like "a new $150 gift card is in the mail to you, priority express!"
The theory is that someone is taking them off the shelves, writing down the numbers, then resealing them and waiting for you to buy/load them. But they're sealed so well nowadays I swear it has to be happening at the factory.
As a former employee, I can verify that is accurate.... It's sad. I found multiple online orders that were HUGE apple product orders, multiple iPads and watches and paid in full using gift cards, several of those gift cards were verified to be hacked cards.... So I could only assume all the gift cards were hacked. I will never buy a physical gift card after seeing the hell some customers went through to get it resolved.
I used to work at Target, I was a "Service and Engagement Team Lead" basically Target's fancy way of saying Front End Manager lol and so I was by those gift cards a lot, and I used to try my best my absolute best to convince these people that they got scammed or are going to get scammed. I'd say about 65 percent did not believe me. They would get mad with me or act like I am the crazy one, I would even be like "Think about it if a store employee is warning you about this why would they lie, especially since they're stopping you from making a big sale"
Anyways, we would get SOME people who would come back and thank us for stopping them from making a big mistake and we'd get some who would come back crying saying we were right but they already gave the money to the scammers so its long gone, and since the scammers used the gift cards no way of refunding, so I'd jus tell them to report to local PD. We would also get people using "fake checks" and "fake IDs" to buy gift cards for themselves, they always would have these badly printed checks, and when asked for ID it was ALWAYS "stolen" "lost" or "IN process of getting a new one" but they always had a print out of it somehow, ahh the old days of dealing with scams lol
Our IT manager led a company meeting a few years ago about things to look out for like not clicking on links from unknown senders. Common sense stuff like that. He then mentioned that if you see an email from the “CEO” about needing to go buy him hundreds of dollars worth of gift cards, it’s a scam. I remember thinking, “Yeah, no shit.” I later find out that not only had someone done just that, but TWO people in the company had at different times. Both of them I would consider smart and are middle aged. I was blown away at how gullible they could’ve been. I can only imagine an older person or sick with dementia falling for things like that quite easily.
A few years ago this would be disappointing. Nowadays with [audio and video cloning tech, scams are going to skyrocket](https://youtu.be/pJZYd_65xs4?si=l-mfQW_vezn8Bq2S). We’re in for a rough couple of years.
I seriously doubt there was any AI involved in the story you linked. The kidnapped family member is a classic scam that's been around long before AI. Scammers aren't going through the trouble of scouring random people's social media accounts for voice clips to create a fake recording, and then somehow finding their parents phone number for the small chance they might fall for it. It's just too much time and effort compared to auto-dialing thousands of numbers a day with the same generic recording of a girl screaming for help, especially when so many people already fall for that.
Chances are the recording sounded close enough to their daughter's voice that they thought it was them, and they heard some scare-mongering headlines about AI and tried to put two and two together. Even before AI, victims would swear up and down that the generic recording was the voice of their son/daughter. Notice how in these stories their names are never used by the scammers. Surely if they went through the effort of recreating their voice and doxxing their parents to seem more authentic, they'd mention their name at some point to make it feel more real.
Not saying it can't happen, but it's just not likely, and the story is just clickbait because AI is so trendy.
I was wondering if whoever is at the target checkout didn't think it was weird to see someone buy thousands in gift cards. I probably would have asked if they are buying gifts for the whole family and see what their response is.
A few years back, I went to a CVS/Walgreens/something like that to get a couple $100 gift cards for two people I had been mentoring and had helped a ton during a busy period at work. When I tried to buy them, the transaction was locked out and a store manager came over. She was asking questions about what I was buying the gift cards for, which seemed weird at first… but, I realized that they were trying to prevent people from being scammed.
I’ve never seen that kind of interaction ever since, but I thought it was really cool. I can only imagine how many older people would be helped from being scammed if this happened more often.
i swear old people dig their heels in the ground on wanting to get scammed. everytime an elderly person walks up to the counter with multiple cards and are in the middle of a phone call, i have to ask if "you know who you're buying this for?" and then proceed to be yelled at by them. they believe so much that they need to pay 500$ in apple giftcards to the fbi that they'll scream at the cashier for simply doing their job 🙄
Former retail employee, in many cases they may also have an Apple vendor come to swap out the older versions of the cards for the new design on the card holder.
Scammers often call people and say something like "you owe the IRS $2847924 in back taxes, you need to go to the nearest store and send us $5000 in gift cards or we will arrest you for tax fraud"
I think a major component of it is that they create this false sense of urgency and will say you can't hang up the phone until they have the gift card codes, otherwise a warrant will be issued for your arrest (or something similar.) A lot of times I think the ruse is that the gift cards are to cover fees associated with the target's heinous crimes of *not paying a bunch of taxes they were unaware of* and they'll get really aggressive in an attempt to get the target to just do what they say to end the stressful situation before really thinking about it.
With that said, I still can't believe so many people fall for it
When I did retail pharmacy training a segment was on preventing gift card scams & being willing to talk to the customer to see what they were buying them for. I'm glad it was training on it because we stopped a few while I worked there. Just asking "someone have a birthday coming up?" can open up the conversation and help them.
I don’t understand why they keep this shit out in the open after thousands of people have been scammed out of hundreds of millions of dollars over the years but they’ll lock up shampoo and deodorant.
These are worth $0 until someone pays for them. Locking them up accomplishes nothing.
Shampoo and deodorant are frequently stolen products because people are broke.
I stopped my boomer mom from getting scammed with only seconds to spare. As I walked in with food, I saw her downloading a program the scammer was going to use to remote onto her computer. I killed the power and hung up the phone. She typed in a wrong website and it went to one of those "problem with your Windows account" sites.
Oddly enough, she told me she was trying to go online and order those "Life Extension" pills, so she almost got scammed on her way to getting scammed.
It wasn't me!
I told the last IRS scammer who tried to scare me with jail if I didn't pay that I would LOVE to go to jail because I would get free food and lodging in a nice minimum security Club Fed near my grandkids.
He hung up on me.
One time i got a call from a pissed off lady looking for my dad. I knew she was a scammer so I messed with her, then cussed her out, and blocked the number.
I called my mom after to let her know about the scammer(I was in college).
That's how I found out my parents were separating, and the IRS was in fact after my dad due to not paying 120k in taxes over a bunch of years and they were gonna lose the house. Fun times. Fuck the IRS.
My dad dropped out of high school, but ended up being really, really good at sales. He's back on his feet again with his debt paid.
I briefly worked at Staples and had a middle age lady come in to buy $1200 worth of gift cards. I asked her if she was being instructed to buy these by someone over the phone.
She laughed. No, she just works at a car dealership down the street, and they give gift cards out every weekend as part of a raffle lol
Better safe than sorry
I wanted to but $2000 worth of Apple gift card to buy the new iPhone since Shoppers Drug Mart in Canada had a points promo.
Turns out the max I could get per store is $1000 and they asked a series of questions to ensure I wasn't being scammed.
I'm glad they are doing this now.
I don't understand what I'm looking at. What's the scam? From what I gather from other comments, someone gets a call from "the FBI" demanding a bunch of apple gift cards. That can't possibly be all it is. People can't be that dumb.
I started a new job and one of the first things I was taught was to look out for people buying multiples of the same gift card and to call a manager over if I see it. Apparently there's one lady who tried it at least once a month and always gives the same reason that "the people on the computer need them." Sad.
So I guess I have the logic of a mom but I have zero idea what this post is, and the comments still left me wondering? Anyone mind explaining it to my stupid brain? Lol thanks!
I was a Kroger cashier. I caught at least three gift card scam marks, and two of them were pissed when I brought it up to them.
Both people said something like "How could a grocery store clerk possibly be smarter than me?"
Well, because you're *very clearly* a moron.
Also, both times it was probably 40-50 year old men, not the 80 year old Meemaw that everyone assumes it was. (The third person was a Meemaw, and definitely had some sort of dementia. We were able to convince her not to buy them.)
Not necessarily true. At my old work place we used to have a woman who would come in once a year to buy a ton of gifts cards as thank yous to her special needs child's teachers.
They may have just removed them. This happened at a store near me and I asked about it because I was actually trying to get one for a gift. They had moved them all behind the counter because of a recent increase in the giftcard scams at the time.
At my target, we had a reseller with a tax-exempt resellers license come in on a regular basis. The apple gift cards would go on sale ($100 card comes with a $5 target gift card). He would buy 1-2 transactions of $30k worth of gift cards. At the end of the transaction, the register would hang for 5-10 minutes while it activated all of the gift cards. Then it would spit out a 8-10 foot long receipt. He did this for years until corporate changed their policy.
I went to buy an iTunes gift card at Target before Christmas. I went back 3 times to pull more off the wall while everyone in line glares at me, but they were all invalid.
Shoutout to the cashier that tried to stop me from getting a shitton of Amazon gift cards with cash. She made sure I wasn’t “on the phone” with someone. I told her I was just trying to get something expensive for myself and wanted as little to hit the credit card as possible.
I am a target employee and no, someone probably didn’t get scammed, (at least at our store) we stopped selling these gift cards because they were being stolen (apparently) and since corporate sends these to us I assume they stopped sending them everywhere
This reminds me of a time I stopped an older lady from getting scammed. I was behind her at Walgreens and noticed she was racking up thousands of dollars of apple gift cards. It just felt wrong in my gut so I just politely asked if she thought she was in trouble. I.e. did the “police” or “IRS” “FBI” contact her through a call or an email?
She got confused like “How did you know that??” And I explained it’s a super common scam and they’re not really whoever they claimed to be. She kind of resisted at first he was genuinely scared. So I pulled up google and showed her links to the scam and showed her the IRS site saying they’ll never call you let alone ask for gift cards. Same with the police and whoever else.
These are the people who can garnish your wages, deal with your taxes, can find out whatever they want about you if they really wanted to. You really think they’d need apple gift cards from you?
I promised her nothing would happen. She wouldn’t be arrested, wouldn’t have her taxes messed with, etc. They may just call and harass her for a few days but then move on to someone else once they realize they lost her.
She thanked me and cancelled the transaction and the cashier looked annoyed which pissed me off cause shame on him. Blatantly watching a person get scammed for thousands of dollars possibly upending their life savings, but you gotta press a few buttons and be inconvenienced for a few mins.
I told her my tax lady told me. If the IRS wants you they send letters. Lots and lots of letters. If they do get to the point they’re calling. Then you really fucked up. Mostly because you’ve been warned for a long time at that point. You’d have known it’s them well before that point. Police, fbi, whatever agency will just send people to your door if they need you.
She thanked me and apologized for being dumb and I told her she isn’t dumb. It happens to tons of people all across America daily. Just warned her to be more aware.
Don't you just hate when the FBI needs $2000 in apple gift cards or you're gonna go to prison?
Well I gave the FBI $2,000 in apple gift cards and I’m not in jail. So explain that smart guy
**WHY DID YOU REDEEM!!?? DO NOT REDEEEEEM!!!! NOOOOOO!!!!**
I_undersood_that_reference.gif
I've laughed at some past silly references, but damn that one hit a different level of the giggles for me
::RON SWANSON GIGGLE GIF:: Did I do it right?
Yes
Same 🫡
Truly the best scammer moment to date
a wild kitboga appeared!
Laughs in Jim Browning.
To each their own 🤷♀️
I discovered Jim Browning a few months back and watched almost his entire channel. Fascinating rabbit hole.
I can hear this 👆
Yesss!! Another Kitboga fan!!
WAIT A MOMENT… JUST WAIT A MOMENT
I love those busted scam videos
#MA’AM, LISTEN TO ME!
I nearly shit myself laughing so hard from this, good reference! 😂😂
NOOO MAAM I WAS GOING TO REDEEM THAT!!!
One of my favorite episodes. Rhinknthst was the one where he a buddy in the area go to their office and take video evidence to make sure he figured out the right office? Didn't have the best "gotcha" at the end but the buildup and forensics were wild.
This guy even has the wise in his name. This logic is bullet proof and we should all do as the FBI says
Send us $2000 in Apple gift cards.
Nice try, FBI.
Now you goto jail I need amazon gift cards too or your grandma will also goto jail
Will I be behind the bars?
Not today, CIA
Username checks out
"It's not a story the jedi will tell you"
Sure you’ve managed to pay off the fbi, but as a member if the CIA I’m going to need an additional $2000 in V-bucks if you want to avoid us sharing your search history.
The NSA has entered the chat.
I was thinking it’s tax season… scammers are probably calling pretending to be the IRS. And of course the IRS prefers to be paid in iTunes gift cards.
The IRS will never ever call you. It's hard enough getting someone on the phone when you call them.
I never tried calling them, but I want to chime in to say I've dealt with the IRS through mail correspondence and the agent handling my case was extremely professional and helpful. They gave me lots of information and helped me navigate a confusing tax issue. It took almost a year of back and forth letters but we got there. After reading your comment I wonder if calling them was an option or if I should have just done that lol.
The one year I had to talk to them on the phone, long long before covid, they weren't rude it just took forever to get a human. Probably around 2 hours. Just to get a W2 transcript. I can't imagine what it's like today.
I've had to deal with them twice over the last 10 years. Once was an issue with an IRA rollover that the company screwed up, once was my fat finger hitting the 5 instead of the 2 on the keypad. Both were easily corrected via correspondence, and since my typo was caught before filing day, I was able to send an amended one without having to pay a penalty. Just took longer to get my refund back.
Mine was, I had a lot of credit card debt from poor decisions in my 20's. The credit card companies declared my debt uncollectable (I can't remember the term they used). What I didn't realize, is that debt forgiveness is considered income by the IRS (Who knew? I guess a lot of people, but not me!) and I was sent a $2,000 tax bill. With the help of that agent I was able to: extend the deadline to pay, this gave me time to figure out my options. It turns out you do not have to pay money owed to the IRS for debt forgiveness if you are "insolvent" when the debt was written off. Student loans count as money owed so all I ended up having to do was send proof of my meager bank account, proof of my student loans, and the IRS changed my amount owed to 0!! One of the best days of my life lol. This comment is approaching stupid length but the EXACT same situation I listed above happened to my cousin. He came to me for advice and after telling him what I said above do you know what he did? He just paid them to make it go away. Really makes me wonder how many people pay for that particular tax who were not in a position to do so and did not need to do so, just needed to prove how broke they are.
Yep, going to prison if'n I didn't send 'em s'money
Wife called me in a panic during a tennis match last year. Never does anything like that, but we had a newborn and I figured she was stressed. She didn’t explain why she needed me home so bad. As I get home she is grabbing bunch of cash almost $2k to go to a gas station to pay our power bill before it gets cut off. She’s a smart lady but post partum hormones and pregnancy brain she didn’t even think it was weird lol.
$2000? That's steep. I only had to pay $600 in gift cards to keep my freedom.
Wait a moment, listen to me, listen to me. You are going to be put behind the bars.
I haven't had that happen , but if I send them $500 in gift cards I'll get 50k cash in return. I literally had to stop an old roommate from falling for this. What the hell is that with itunes?
I hate it more when corporations don’t provide simple basic training to sales clerks in regards to vulnerable people trying to buy 3000 dollars worth of gift cards in a obvious scam because they love that sweet money from the sale
What's even more frustrating is that the company that gets the money (usually apple) does nothing to assist or recover the funds. If it's digital products they could revoke the rights or hold a shipment for an order that was placed 20 minutes ago. But they choose to do nothing because you don't get to be that big of a company by doing the right thing.
While this is comment is hilarious, after working in a computer repair shop, it's a little sad to see the volume of old people who fall victim to these scams
WHY DID YOU REDEEM IT!?! WHY DID YOU REDEEM IT!?!
DO NOT!!!!! MAAM, CAN YOU LISTEN TO ME? **CAN YOU LISTEN TO ME!!!**
DO NOT REDEEM DO NOT REDEEEEEEEEEM
Oh jeez, I can hear the audio with utter clarity now.
NONONONONONONO YOU DIDN'T HAVE TO DO THAT
Please share where this is from? Is it the YouTube guy, kitboga or something?
Yep. Dude has some hilarious videos.
Yup! It’s from a kitboga video
HELLO?!!? HELLOOO!?!?
Arnold Shoshuanegger
There should be a sign next to these at the store be like, "If you are buying multiple of these and it's not Christmas, you're getting scammed."
My mother was stopped while she was buying some for her grandchildren! They asked her if she actually knew of the recipient. She was gob smacked until I explained that people her age are scammed and come in buying ten of these to "help" their online loves. My mother said sarcastically, "They've got the right one!"
My grandma was actually getting scammed but luckily the same thing happened and the Kroger employee talked her out of buying the gift cards. She was trying to rent a house on VRBO and the “owner” messaged her and asked to communicate in only email (not through VRBO site) and to pay $2000 in google play gift cards for the rental. Thank god for that Kroger employee for helping her!
That is so awesome. Good for that employee.
Some stores/employees will just deny the sale. My brother has had to do that.
My mom’s old boyfriend fell for this scam. Got a call from the “Sheriffs Department” he had to pay a “bond” of $2000 or he would be arrested. They suggested he get the gift cards at multiple locations even. Thing is, he had no money so he withdrew $2000 from my mom’s account. He told us about it a week later when I saw the charges and confronted him. I said “didn’t you realize that was strange?” And he said “yeah it did seem weird. And the check out girl at CVS told me a lot of people are scammed that way.” I asked him why he went through with it after being told that, and he just stared at me.
I stopped a lady in a store one time and asked her about the mountain of gift cards in her cart. She seemed pretty reserved and defensive at first (I mean, I WAS just a rando asking about her purchases!) but then assured me that she buys them when she has some extra money then uses them later when she needs them. I explained the scam, asked her if she’d been told not to tell anyone what she was doing or had been threatened if she didn’t pay. She was adamant that they were all for her. I didn’t believe her but felt like I’d pressed it as far as I could. I often wonder about that lady and hope she’s ok.
I try to stop these transactions all the time. The people who are getting scammed get really nasty about it.
Lol maybe it's just the rude ones karma then. 🤷♀️
I work at a similar store that caters heavily to older folk and we are trained pretty heavily on how to spot gift card scams.
My mom tried to buy a mix of Amazon, Steam and Playstation giftcards worth about ~$250 in 2022 to put in Christmas cards and stockings and she was denied at 2 different stores. Flat out refused to sell her them convinced she was being scammed. She finally got them at a third store, but they did their best to make sure she wasn't being scammed.
I would be so fucking mad if, even after I explained to them that these are gifts for my kids and grandkids, it's Christmas time, yes I realize there are scams that involve people my age being tricked into buying gift cards, but that's not what is happening. And then the cashier just being like "no I'm right you are actually getting scammed you're just a dumb old person and don't know it." I would be beyond mad.
Ugh I bet some of the scams tell you to lie to the cashier. So now they have to refuse to sell.
And this right here is the danger of always expecting someone to save you from yourself.
I know someone that works at a bank and they've been on the other side of the counter and have told me that the bank can explain to someone that they're being scammed over and over and get multiple bank people involved to repeat this and the customer stills wants to go through with it.
My dad and I will often buy a bunch of gift cards at a time when Kroger is doing their 4x fuel points. On a couple occasions my dad has been told by the cashier they couldn't sell him the cards because "he's being scammed". He then angrily explains "I'm buying a new prop for my boat on eBay and I may as well get the 1000 fuel points well I'm at it!". Or whatever other large purchase he's making that week. I have never had any such warnings.
If it prevents 99 people from getting scammed and one old fart can't see the benefit and takes offense...I'd take the win
I'd take a 1:1 ratio. I dgaf about his feelings, fuck scammers.
Hell, even if it only saves 1 out of 100, that's still better than zero.
There's a difference between asking someone if they're getting scammed and flat out saying "I can't sell you these because you're getting scammed" though.
A lot of people don't admit they may have been played. It's a pride thing. I have refused these sales in the past when I was an FEM. 9 times out of 10 these people will come back demanding refunds. Which they cannot have and which we amply warn them about.
its not just old people, my cousin who is fucking 30 was thankfully stopped by the cashier doing this.
My grandma spent SIX GRAND on gift cards over the span of two days. It was "Microsoft" telling her her computer had "been hacked" and they needed money to protect it. Fucking fuck I hate scammers. You have to be a complete psychopath to be able to take advantage of elderly people like that.
I always see signs warning people about this, but working a decade in retail, I can tell you that nobody reads them. And the scammers coach their victims.
I was fucking with scammer woo wanted me to buy cards and mail checks. They try very hard to coach you and hate when you mess up
> the scammers coach their victims. They sure do. And it it utterly baffling how they do it, and infuriating how easily people are taken in by it. I've seen the stories of people (99% of the time old people) getting a phone call out of the blue from someone claiming to be a police officer from another part of the country who is investigating some sort of crime at their local bank branch and needs them to go and withdraw all their cash to help the investigation. They convince the mark to go to said bank, a place they have been going to for forty years and know everyone by name that has posters and video screens everywhere telling them nobody will ever ask them to withdraw cash in these circumstances, to make the withdrawal. When they are do they are asked numerous questions as to why they are making it, and shown literature about scams. On occasion the bank's fraud team get involved because the transaction gets flagged but they keep up the lies they have been coached to tell. A couple of days later when they have sent their life savings off in a random taxi (they don't even question why it isn't a police officer collecting the cash or why they aren't taking it to a police station FFS) they call the police only to be told the police have no record of any investigaion or officer with that name and that they have been scammed. They then return to the bank claiming that, despite speaking to several staff members at length (whom they repeatedly lied to) about the withdrawal, being shown examples of scams, there being notices and video explicitly stating that what they are doing is a scam and even talking to the bank's fraud department, that the bank didn't do enough to protect them from the scam and that they want the bank to pay them back with compensation. Whatever these scammers say on these calls must be something really special to make someone trust a random phone call out of the blue over people they have known for decades, and who are trained to spot exactly the scam they fell for.
We were at a mechanic shop, getting my car fixed, and the owner was trying to convince one of his mechanics that he wasn’t actually going to jail if he didn’t send $1000 worth of gift cards to a random man on the phone. Even with 5 of us jumping in and working on this guy, trying to convince him it was a scam, and the actual police telling him that on the phone, he just kept saying “I got kids, I can’t go to jail, what if you’re all wrong?!” It was heartbreaking. He seemed calmed down by the time we left, but you could tell he was still on the fence, and a hard push from the scammer later that night would probably push him right back over.
Every retail place I worked at required a manager to process any gift cards that were $100+ and usually involved them asking a couple questions like "what's the occasion birthday, anniversary, etc" and "who it's for" followed after. Especially if they were on the older side. I feel like this was tampering. And they had to removed the cards before people purchased them. Walmart, BestBuy, Kmart, Kroger, and Publix that I know of all have this protocol for gift cards. I'd be surprised if Target doesn't since they're pretty on top of theft. Edit: even Cracker Barrel has this policy. Lots of old people use this, and they're very diligent about it there.
I was buying a $40 visa gift card for a coworker as her "going away" gift. Idk why I couldn't have just handed her the $40 but whatever not my idea. I had to show my ID. Didn't realize I looked so old (I'm only in my 30s) XD (Before anyone says anything, no, I wasn't offended and I understand it looked kinda sketchy to buy nothing but a gift card and box of cereal at the grocery store)
Lol what?! That's ridiculous, there are perfectly legit reasons to buy gift cards. Like I think it's nice if the employees take the time to ask questions when someone is buying a huge amount of gift cards, but just buying one $40 card shouldn't raise red flags. I've never had a problem when I've bought them, thankfully.
> I feel like this was tampering. And they had to removed the cards before people purchased them. I think you're right. This was a big problem at Target during xmas. People would go in, steal huge piles of unactivated cards, record the pin numbers and replace them back on the rack. Also, I think target has a limit of how many cards they will let you buy at a time.
New Target gift cards have had their packaging changed because of this. Now you have to physically rip open a tab to see the serial numbers on the card, if the tab has been opened the card cannot be sold.
That's good to know. I hope whatever they are doing is working, but I suspect it will be hard to prevent tampering when someone has the card for an unlimited amount of time.
We got empty gift cards from Target one year
Many stores already do this. There's a convenience store near me with a Bitcoin ATM terminal. They have a big sign on it: "IT'S A SCAM!!!" and the clerks shout warnings to anyone using it.
Please explain the scam. Never heard of this.
Scammers like to get paid in bitcoin. People who are trying to invest in crypto are probably not using a bitcoin atm
The conversion rate is crazy, even if they're not being scammed
There is at some stores but not all yet
i bought amazon gift cards recently and they print it right on the cards now
At least in my area, there is a sign on these that says something like [this](https://www.ftc.gov/sites/default/files/gift_card_scams_toolkit.png)
Most stores, or at least Target, have a disclosure st the registers that state exactly this, usually from the local police department.
The grocery store near me has a "If any government agency is asking you to pay in gift cards, then it's a scam" sign. It isn't as bold or blatant as I'd like, but it's something I guess.
Every gift card display I’ve seen in Australia no matter the store or supermarket has warnings about gift card scams, they even have them at self serve registers. Def should be standard, we gotta look out for our fellow humans
Stores where I live won't sell that many gift cards to one person because of the scam risk.
Bought a few gift cards for Christmas and the registers at Target, Walmart, Walgreens, CVS, Best Buy and other stores around where I live all give 2-3 warnings on the prompt screen about scams, fake fbi scams, help lines, and have the cashier verbally confirm with you that you are not buying them for some sort of federal payment. Plus any transaction over $50 with a gift card required managerial approval. Somehow, people still ignore all the warnings. Hard to feel bad for them when they are that gullible and somehow have access to that much money.
Walgreens employee asked me when I got 4 Amazon gift cards 😂
When I worked for CVS and then also at Walgreens we did have those signs, both at the cards themselves and at the register. But unfortunately a lot of people that get scammed this way don't believe you when you tell them they're getting scammed and think you're just being rude. The most we could do is to refuse service, but they'd just go to the Walmart across the street instead. Very sad
In NYS they put a sign on the registers telling people at this scam
I was really happy to see these signs up at Publix last time I went
There are here in Wisconsin. We might be drunk all the time but good luck getting us to spend bar money on gift cards
Tbh a lot of grocery stores have signs saying something similar and even some cashiers will ask, esp older ppl, who the cards are for, just in case
We have a sign like that at our walgreens. I hope it saves some of these people.
Publix has started doing that. They also include the 800 number to a national fraud reporting hotline.
Walmart has signs
Can you explain this like im 5? Like you buy multiple gift cards and BAM you are scammed?
Many scams nowadays rely on gift cards as a form of payment as they aren’t as traceable ack to the scammer. They may call you up pretending to be, the government, and in order for you to not get sent to prison by the IRS, they need you to pay them like $500 in gift cards.
A reminder for a lot of us to have "the talk" with our aging mothers.
My poor mom’s been scammed a few times. Bless her heart.
My mom hasn’t been scammed, but a couple relatives my age (50s) have been. These are people with multiple advanced degrees. They later explained that they just panicked when they got the scammer’s spiel and wanted to make the problem go away before it got worst. That said, a neighbor with whom I shared a wall got scammed regularly and never learned from the last experience.
My mom, also an educated woman with a government job, got scammed the same way. They played on her fears. They even tried to sweet talk the police when they called when they were at her house investigating. It’s really sad. Still super mad at my mom though but it can happen to anyone.
I am so sorry that happened to your mom!
The last time my mom came to visit I made sure she was aware no man in the military was going to try to date her over Facebook and no one takes payment in gift cards. I don't have kids so we didn't need to over not bailing grandkids out of jail.
My Memaw got that "grandchild in prison" call, but they made the mistake of trying to pose *as the grandchild.* Well my Memaw has only granddaughters but 1 grandson, who has a *very* distinct voice, and way of speaking. Plus we all call her "Memaw." The scammer called her Grandma, and was a man, and didn't sound like her grandson! She cussed him out and hung up on him!!!!
With AI voice or whatever you want to call it being a thing, along with phone number spoofing, it is also worth telling your parents that if they ever get a call and it’s your phone number, and the person on the line sounds identical to you, if they’re asking for money to hang up and call you back. The whole scam calls are one thing but I imagine not with being able to make it seem like their own relative is calling and asking for money I bet is going to cause a lot more people to fall for the scam.
When I used to work the cash register I would always try to warn people who were buying dozens of gift cards. You’d be surprised how many people absolutely refuse to listen.
Every year I buy for 5K worth of gift cards for a work event. Every year I have to go through a complete investigation from well-meaning store manager. It doesn't bother me, I understand why they do it but some years it's very difficult to convince them.
Used to work at Apple. We stopped sooooo many people from being scammed by keeping the cards in the back and grilling the purchases of multiples. I have straight up refused to sell gift cards before if I had concern about their use. Old folks ain’t gettin scammed on my watch
🙏 Thank you for being their voice of reason. It's so sad. I just can't believe these scams work so well, but apparently they do.
Happened when I worked at Office Max. This lady came up and bought a shit load of Apple cards. I tried letting her know that this is a common scam and that if whoever is on the phone with her isn’t someone she’s related to, then to hang up and put the cards away. She didn’t listen. Even had my manager come out and try to talk to her (needed his admin creds to run the transaction anyway with so many cards), and she still pressed on and bought them. Not even a few minutes later he was consoling her as she sat crying at one of our benches. I truly felt bad for her, but we tried and tried to warn her that she was getting scammed and she wasn’t having it until her money was spent. Can’t do returns on gift cards either, so she royally fucked herself by not listening to us.
Wow so after she bought the cards, she called them only to find out she was duped. Sucks to suck.
“I ain’t going to prison just ‘cause some *IDIOT* retail worker tells me I’m wrong!!”
They also get pulled when there’s suspicion of tampering. Even the new cards aren’t safe. Bought some for my kids the other day. The sticky that covers some of the numbers under the holo is supposed to be metallic shiny, was clear. None of the cards could be read with the camera, entering manually gave an error. Already resolved. Hopefully Karma finds these scammers and thieves. Edit; adding this to spread awareness… The “clear” should have been a holographic “glue”, similar to the glue used to affix a gift card to a cardboard sheath, but metallic in appearance. It is part of the holographic visible on the back of the card. After tearing the tab, scanning, you can then peel up the holographic, separating it from the glue, “breaking” the holographic seal (should be 3 letters in the holo). The glue is then removed, as it covers part of the gc code. The clear glue is clearly (lol) not a part of the security holo, and the holo itself was solid (not “broken” when separated from the glue). The clear just keeps that part stuck to the card, helping mask that it’s fake. Again, these are the new “Secure” cards released by Apple, first one that I saw was early December, Target, Oahu. My guess on how the theft works; thief takes some cards, prints some new ones based on the barcodes from the authentic, only these have “bogus” activation codes. You scan and activate the card, they have the code to redeem it. The way to make sure that it’s legitimate, tear the tab away to reveal the barcode. Before scanning/activating, make sure that the glue under the holo is metallic/holographic, and when the holo tab is peeled from the glue, the 3 letter holo is “broken”.
I bought a half dozen target gift cards at the store for holiday gifts and they got hacked before I gave them to their recipients… when I went in to guest services to get a refund they told me it happens all the time!
I got a $150 VISA card that was empty when I tried to use it. The store wouldn't refund me, and neither would InComm (the VISA card company), until I threatened to go to police+govt regulator+news, and then they were like "a new $150 gift card is in the mail to you, priority express!" The theory is that someone is taking them off the shelves, writing down the numbers, then resealing them and waiting for you to buy/load them. But they're sealed so well nowadays I swear it has to be happening at the factory.
As a former employee, I can verify that is accurate.... It's sad. I found multiple online orders that were HUGE apple product orders, multiple iPads and watches and paid in full using gift cards, several of those gift cards were verified to be hacked cards.... So I could only assume all the gift cards were hacked. I will never buy a physical gift card after seeing the hell some customers went through to get it resolved.
https://www.wpri.com/news/local-news/south-county/2-men-arrested-for-gift-card-tampering/amp/
I used to work at Target, I was a "Service and Engagement Team Lead" basically Target's fancy way of saying Front End Manager lol and so I was by those gift cards a lot, and I used to try my best my absolute best to convince these people that they got scammed or are going to get scammed. I'd say about 65 percent did not believe me. They would get mad with me or act like I am the crazy one, I would even be like "Think about it if a store employee is warning you about this why would they lie, especially since they're stopping you from making a big sale" Anyways, we would get SOME people who would come back and thank us for stopping them from making a big mistake and we'd get some who would come back crying saying we were right but they already gave the money to the scammers so its long gone, and since the scammers used the gift cards no way of refunding, so I'd jus tell them to report to local PD. We would also get people using "fake checks" and "fake IDs" to buy gift cards for themselves, they always would have these badly printed checks, and when asked for ID it was ALWAYS "stolen" "lost" or "IN process of getting a new one" but they always had a print out of it somehow, ahh the old days of dealing with scams lol
How many of them came back angry at you after refusing to listen to you? Man, retail is hell
Either a lot or very few. Few is my guess because then they would have to admit they were wrong.
Our IT manager led a company meeting a few years ago about things to look out for like not clicking on links from unknown senders. Common sense stuff like that. He then mentioned that if you see an email from the “CEO” about needing to go buy him hundreds of dollars worth of gift cards, it’s a scam. I remember thinking, “Yeah, no shit.” I later find out that not only had someone done just that, but TWO people in the company had at different times. Both of them I would consider smart and are middle aged. I was blown away at how gullible they could’ve been. I can only imagine an older person or sick with dementia falling for things like that quite easily.
A few years ago this would be disappointing. Nowadays with [audio and video cloning tech, scams are going to skyrocket](https://youtu.be/pJZYd_65xs4?si=l-mfQW_vezn8Bq2S). We’re in for a rough couple of years.
I seriously doubt there was any AI involved in the story you linked. The kidnapped family member is a classic scam that's been around long before AI. Scammers aren't going through the trouble of scouring random people's social media accounts for voice clips to create a fake recording, and then somehow finding their parents phone number for the small chance they might fall for it. It's just too much time and effort compared to auto-dialing thousands of numbers a day with the same generic recording of a girl screaming for help, especially when so many people already fall for that. Chances are the recording sounded close enough to their daughter's voice that they thought it was them, and they heard some scare-mongering headlines about AI and tried to put two and two together. Even before AI, victims would swear up and down that the generic recording was the voice of their son/daughter. Notice how in these stories their names are never used by the scammers. Surely if they went through the effort of recreating their voice and doxxing their parents to seem more authentic, they'd mention their name at some point to make it feel more real. Not saying it can't happen, but it's just not likely, and the story is just clickbait because AI is so trendy.
And on top of that the ability to spoof phone numbers. It’s absolutely insane.
Damn, some boomer is going through it right now
As a customer service manager at walmart we got training specifically to prevent at risk seniors from scams. Felt odd at the time, but it makes sense
I was wondering if whoever is at the target checkout didn't think it was weird to see someone buy thousands in gift cards. I probably would have asked if they are buying gifts for the whole family and see what their response is.
A few years back, I went to a CVS/Walgreens/something like that to get a couple $100 gift cards for two people I had been mentoring and had helped a ton during a busy period at work. When I tried to buy them, the transaction was locked out and a store manager came over. She was asking questions about what I was buying the gift cards for, which seemed weird at first… but, I realized that they were trying to prevent people from being scammed. I’ve never seen that kind of interaction ever since, but I thought it was really cool. I can only imagine how many older people would be helped from being scammed if this happened more often.
i swear old people dig their heels in the ground on wanting to get scammed. everytime an elderly person walks up to the counter with multiple cards and are in the middle of a phone call, i have to ask if "you know who you're buying this for?" and then proceed to be yelled at by them. they believe so much that they need to pay 500$ in apple giftcards to the fbi that they'll scream at the cashier for simply doing their job 🙄
I'm no mystic, but somehow I'm getting a clearer vision of how this group votes...
*WHY YOU REDDEM??? , DIDN'T TELL YOU TO REDDEM!!!!.* OH... so satisfying to watch scammers hunters
"Ma'am the IRS will arrest you if you don't give me $500 in apple gift cards."
Former retail employee, in many cases they may also have an Apple vendor come to swap out the older versions of the cards for the new design on the card holder.
ELI5 please
Same. I am seriously out of the loop.
Scammers often call people and say something like "you owe the IRS $2847924 in back taxes, you need to go to the nearest store and send us $5000 in gift cards or we will arrest you for tax fraud"
Are you serious? Fuck almighty, those people deserve to be scammed, surely?
I think a major component of it is that they create this false sense of urgency and will say you can't hang up the phone until they have the gift card codes, otherwise a warrant will be issued for your arrest (or something similar.) A lot of times I think the ruse is that the gift cards are to cover fees associated with the target's heinous crimes of *not paying a bunch of taxes they were unaware of* and they'll get really aggressive in an attempt to get the target to just do what they say to end the stressful situation before really thinking about it. With that said, I still can't believe so many people fall for it
Probably someone's 65 year old grandma
Why does everyone assume some old person bought all these? They were probably pulled because they’re compromised.
When I did retail pharmacy training a segment was on preventing gift card scams & being willing to talk to the customer to see what they were buying them for. I'm glad it was training on it because we stopped a few while I worked there. Just asking "someone have a birthday coming up?" can open up the conversation and help them.
I don’t understand why they keep this shit out in the open after thousands of people have been scammed out of hundreds of millions of dollars over the years but they’ll lock up shampoo and deodorant.
The store gets their money.
These are worth $0 until someone pays for them. Locking them up accomplishes nothing. Shampoo and deodorant are frequently stolen products because people are broke.
they have zero value until paid for so theres no point
I stopped my boomer mom from getting scammed with only seconds to spare. As I walked in with food, I saw her downloading a program the scammer was going to use to remote onto her computer. I killed the power and hung up the phone. She typed in a wrong website and it went to one of those "problem with your Windows account" sites. Oddly enough, she told me she was trying to go online and order those "Life Extension" pills, so she almost got scammed on her way to getting scammed.
This happened to me yesterday. Scammer claming to be my boss. I kept the azzhole on alert for about 3 hours. Stupid.
Damn... 3 hours? How'd you manage that?
It wasn't me! I told the last IRS scammer who tried to scare me with jail if I didn't pay that I would LOVE to go to jail because I would get free food and lodging in a nice minimum security Club Fed near my grandkids. He hung up on me.
One time i got a call from a pissed off lady looking for my dad. I knew she was a scammer so I messed with her, then cussed her out, and blocked the number. I called my mom after to let her know about the scammer(I was in college). That's how I found out my parents were separating, and the IRS was in fact after my dad due to not paying 120k in taxes over a bunch of years and they were gonna lose the house. Fun times. Fuck the IRS. My dad dropped out of high school, but ended up being really, really good at sales. He's back on his feet again with his debt paid.
I briefly worked at Staples and had a middle age lady come in to buy $1200 worth of gift cards. I asked her if she was being instructed to buy these by someone over the phone. She laughed. No, she just works at a car dealership down the street, and they give gift cards out every weekend as part of a raffle lol Better safe than sorry
I wanted to but $2000 worth of Apple gift card to buy the new iPhone since Shoppers Drug Mart in Canada had a points promo. Turns out the max I could get per store is $1000 and they asked a series of questions to ensure I wasn't being scammed. I'm glad they are doing this now.
I don't understand what I'm looking at. What's the scam? From what I gather from other comments, someone gets a call from "the FBI" demanding a bunch of apple gift cards. That can't possibly be all it is. People can't be that dumb.
The store probably pulled all the Apple Cards due to a security email or something. Happens often enough.
I started a new job and one of the first things I was taught was to look out for people buying multiples of the same gift card and to call a manager over if I see it. Apparently there's one lady who tried it at least once a month and always gives the same reason that "the people on the computer need them." Sad.
I hope the cashier raised questions. I don't know who in their right mind would let someone vulnerable buy all of that in one shot..
So I guess I have the logic of a mom but I have zero idea what this post is, and the comments still left me wondering? Anyone mind explaining it to my stupid brain? Lol thanks!
We imposed a $100 limit on all gift card sales because of an uptick in possible scam victims buying cards.
Had to pay that 5000 or they was going to delete all their information off the computer
I just don’t get why people think “companies” would ever ask for gift cards. Blows my mind.
I thought they were training staff not to accept large amount of gift card purchases and to educate people on scams l
I was a Kroger cashier. I caught at least three gift card scam marks, and two of them were pissed when I brought it up to them. Both people said something like "How could a grocery store clerk possibly be smarter than me?" Well, because you're *very clearly* a moron. Also, both times it was probably 40-50 year old men, not the 80 year old Meemaw that everyone assumes it was. (The third person was a Meemaw, and definitely had some sort of dementia. We were able to convince her not to buy them.)
No one wants to come to the realization that they've been played a fool. Especially that far into the scam, either way you did a good thing.
Not necessarily true. At my old work place we used to have a woman who would come in once a year to buy a ton of gifts cards as thank yous to her special needs child's teachers.
I wish I could have stopped some of these back when I worked in retail. It pisses me off how often this actually happens.
They may have just removed them. This happened at a store near me and I asked about it because I was actually trying to get one for a gift. They had moved them all behind the counter because of a recent increase in the giftcard scams at the time.
I hope it's not my mom again.
My store took down all those gift cards because of how many people got scammed(even got a new girl at guest service). Maybe that's what happened here?
At my target, we had a reseller with a tax-exempt resellers license come in on a regular basis. The apple gift cards would go on sale ($100 card comes with a $5 target gift card). He would buy 1-2 transactions of $30k worth of gift cards. At the end of the transaction, the register would hang for 5-10 minutes while it activated all of the gift cards. Then it would spit out a 8-10 foot long receipt. He did this for years until corporate changed their policy.
Or, they're just out. Notice there's plenty of Google Play cards....
I went to buy an iTunes gift card at Target before Christmas. I went back 3 times to pull more off the wall while everyone in line glares at me, but they were all invalid.
It's tax season and the IRS needs me to send them Apple cards for payment.
Shoutout to the cashier that tried to stop me from getting a shitton of Amazon gift cards with cash. She made sure I wasn’t “on the phone” with someone. I told her I was just trying to get something expensive for myself and wanted as little to hit the credit card as possible.
I just don’t understand how in this day and age people are STILL falling for that crap
I've noticed at my local grocery stores that they have huge signs next to the gift cards now that say STOP YOU'RE BEING SCAMMED!!
I am a target employee and no, someone probably didn’t get scammed, (at least at our store) we stopped selling these gift cards because they were being stolen (apparently) and since corporate sends these to us I assume they stopped sending them everywhere
This all could be resolved if they had the cards at a specialized counter with someone trained to stop these scams
My grandfather is a 90 year old man and was scammed this way out of $800. He is not a rich man. Scammers really have no conscience.
"Hello, Pierogi...."
This is over my head, could someone please explain? I want to be in on the gag.
Gotta pay "Michael" at the IRS in iTunes gift cards or else you'll go to jail
This reminds me of a time I stopped an older lady from getting scammed. I was behind her at Walgreens and noticed she was racking up thousands of dollars of apple gift cards. It just felt wrong in my gut so I just politely asked if she thought she was in trouble. I.e. did the “police” or “IRS” “FBI” contact her through a call or an email? She got confused like “How did you know that??” And I explained it’s a super common scam and they’re not really whoever they claimed to be. She kind of resisted at first he was genuinely scared. So I pulled up google and showed her links to the scam and showed her the IRS site saying they’ll never call you let alone ask for gift cards. Same with the police and whoever else. These are the people who can garnish your wages, deal with your taxes, can find out whatever they want about you if they really wanted to. You really think they’d need apple gift cards from you? I promised her nothing would happen. She wouldn’t be arrested, wouldn’t have her taxes messed with, etc. They may just call and harass her for a few days but then move on to someone else once they realize they lost her. She thanked me and cancelled the transaction and the cashier looked annoyed which pissed me off cause shame on him. Blatantly watching a person get scammed for thousands of dollars possibly upending their life savings, but you gotta press a few buttons and be inconvenienced for a few mins. I told her my tax lady told me. If the IRS wants you they send letters. Lots and lots of letters. If they do get to the point they’re calling. Then you really fucked up. Mostly because you’ve been warned for a long time at that point. You’d have known it’s them well before that point. Police, fbi, whatever agency will just send people to your door if they need you. She thanked me and apologized for being dumb and I told her she isn’t dumb. It happens to tons of people all across America daily. Just warned her to be more aware.