Pinole police send warning about new gift card scam 

Criminals will literally do anything but work an honest job

Stores just need to start putting gift cards in locked cases, it’s that simple

The fact police told the entire scheme; means its already widespread and out of control.

Put the cards behind the counter

I was a victim of this last year. Stopped buying gift cards.

Don’t buy gift cards. Just give cash to your loved ones.

Cash as a gift is better than a card.

They’re doing everything but getting a damn job.

What a shitty world we live in where people actually do these scams!

You would think that someone with this kind of intelligence WOULD HAVE A DAMN JOB! Not scamming innocent people.

How is it not the stores responsibility to sell you cards that haven't been tampered with? Why does it always fall on the consumer?

I’m so sick of these scammers!! If they are smart enough to think up and pull off these scams then they are smart enough to work an honest job!!

Or retailers should just keep cards behind the cash registers or in locked cases. They should not leave them exposed for crime and up to the consumer to take the loss.

Just lock up the gift cards so they can't be manipulated.

Time to lock those up too! Unfortunately.

Very clever! Criminals spend so much time trying to get money. They can make money by being employed!

Back to the good old days… cold hard cash in the envelope. 😅

Moral of the story...DO NOT BUY GIFT CARDS! I saw a guy doing this in Walmart years ago. He would take the whole rack and scan the cards somehow and then return them to the shelf.

How about we just start giving people cash again.

This scam is not new... i knew about this scam at least 7 years ago when I worked as a cashier at a major grocery store in the Midwest. I would go out of my way to warn my customers about this scam! And I would go out of my way to alert store security if I noticed a person spending too much time around the gift cards or if they grabbed a handful of cards and walked away with them!!! It's really sad when a person chooses stealing in lieu of a full time job.

I was actually scammed at issuer of the gift card. Host at a restaurant directed me to the bar (that should have been an immediate flag). It was one of those buy $50, get $10 free. I bought 2 $25 cards. Bar tender gave me the cards, purchase and gift receipts. She specifically pointed out the $10 card which I placed in a different pocket. Went home to place gift cards in Xmas envelopes when I noticed gift receipt for $25 didn't match. It matched the one I put my other pocket. I thought easy mistake. A few weeks later, I went to restaurant to use $10 gift card, and there was no money on the card. I showed my receipts to manager. He fixed it. Bar tender had given herself a $10 tip from that card, and she was going to have me give the empty card to my friend 😡

Happened to me with Vanilla Visa gift card. The card company asked for private information before they would address the problem, and even then, they didn't guarantee they could give a refund. It's BS, I didn't want to provide my personal info.

This never happens in the US 10 years ago...nowadays sucks! I wonder why?

I don’t even buy gift cards anymore especially from Walmart . The employees are in on it at those Walmarts and CVS stores . It’s terrible better to just give cash I guess

The stores managers allowing this should be charged.

Oh the irony , telling thieves exactly how it’s done while trying to prevent it from happening more

Still don't understand how they're taking the money

These criminals spend so much time and effort doing these things, when really they should just focus on getting a real job.

The things that people to do to others especially before Xmas. Heartless.

Happened to me at Target. Bought a target gift card for my friends birthday. She wanted to use it but 0$ balance. Luckily I still had the receipt and they resolved the issue. I live in the west coast and the scammer was in the east coast. They don't even have to be physically there to alter the cards.

Just need to get rid of gift cards all together

They would see them doing all of that. I think it's the employees doing it to be honest.

The REAL scam is that companies don't pay taxes on gift card purchases until the card is spent, although the company receives 100% of the money. If the card is lost or damaged/if there's a small remaining balance etc, the company just keeps the profit tax free. 😮

Stores should keep gift cards behind counter.

Fuck it, i'm not even purchasing gift cards anymore.

We just had a church scammed out of almost $1000 in Walmart gift cards that didn't even have the correct card numbers of the cards scanned on the activation receipts given to the customer. Looks like some Walmart employee that can access the POS System and inventory is ripping customers off. Tsk tsk tsk Tis the season to be greedy. 😢

Something else the store will have to lock inside a cabinet, and no returns allowed

This happened to my sister's gifts last Christmas, where she bought a bunch of gift cards from Target for us. It was only at our new year vacation when we found out that there was nothing in the gift cards. In this case, my sister's cards were monitored by bots and as soon as it was filled, the criminals stole all of its balance.

Get gift cards directly from the bank or send a digital gift card or give cash. So many options.

DO NOT BUY GIFT CARDS ANYWHERE!

It’s time to make a gift cards kiosk, the card is secured, not tampered and guarded.

Why doesn’t the store check the cards when they’re returned. Our country is overrun with criminals. Stricter consequences are needed

Sounds like "Cash Is King" for the holidays. Technology and the IRS are taking us back to the 90s

Man crime is horrific in our country. Horrific!! WOW! JUST WOW!!!!

I'm surprised gift cards are still legal. Seems like an easy thing to regulate that would instantly kill a huge amount of scams.

I'd rather give cash than gift cards 😂

The fact that you can return gift cards is bizarre lol. Why is that even a thing

Gift card company should put vending machine for security reason. Trust on employees is sometimes slippery slopes.

😂 most stores have zero return policy with gift cards. Also… I saw a kid taking them other day at a Walmart 🤦🏻‍♀️

Gift cards themselves are just a scam. It's better to give CASH than to lock your "gift" to a store your giftee may NEVER use.

It’s better to buy e-gift cards now and print it out if you want a tangible gift card so you don’t expose yourself to these risks.

Cash is king! My niece I'm sure would like some crisp bills vs a card anyway.

Hahaha, the cops finally caught on after years of this lol. This has been going on since the mid 2000s

Make sure you get a receipt for the gift card too. Had an issue over 10 years ago with one I gave to my parents and there was no money on it, but the receipt made it all right. Don't know if the Walmart cashier messed up or intentionally tried to dupe me.

Open it up after you purchase it. What? They going to give you your money back?. I thought you couldn't return stuff like that

Thanks for sharing. 😮

Or just don't buy them at all. There are still checks and money orders you can use. Ole school, the best school.

So let me get this straight, I have to go buy gift cards for scammers to pay my tax bill so I dont get arrested, only to be scammed by scammers who already found a way to live here who physically alter the cards?? 😅😅😅

This isn't new at all. This has been going on for a long time. I knew people doing this over 10 years ago🤦🏽‍♀️.

I work for a company that goes around to Dollar Generals to do shelf resets and recently they have removed and replaced a bunch of Gift Cards that use the cardboard packaging and put in new cards that are one solid card so that you can tell if it's been tampered with in this way as obviously they can't cut them anymore. I think it's a wise move by ALL gift card companies to do this.

Isn’t it easier just to give cash instead? I never understood why people buy these gift cards

These thieves always find a way to get around retailers... imaging using your ingenuity to help others.

Just get digital cards and give them a Christmas card and write the details in it. Nothing is full proof, but it's much safer than buying physical cards from stores these days. People suck.

Also, use the entire balance immediately after activating the card.

Imagine if these crooks use their minds to do good things.

Wondered how long it would take to make gift cards an easy scam. Cash is king.

SCREW GIFT CARDS. THEY'RE SUCH A DUMB IDEA. CASH IS KING

Happened to me before! Stores need to have them behind the counter and you just tell them which one you want!

That makes no sense. If they criminals cut the cards why would anyone activate it? That video and reporters "explanation" were helpful. Why not just play the police officers explanation. The reporter did a lousy job explaining. Anyway, I heard that the criminals take the cars home and write down the access code (don't know how they can get the access code when it needs to be scratched off.) so they know when the card is either activated or money has been loaded, I guess for debit like cards, however the reporters never go in depth to warn consumers. I'm always perplexed that criminals are always a few steps in front of when it comes to monetary crimes. They are obviously using their brain more and getting dangerously creative. So the UPC code can be used as well as the number that needs to be scratched off?

Computer scammers from India work their scam by telling the guy to go to Target and buy $5000 of gift cards, then give the numbers to the scammers to reimburese the Indians for an "over payment" or "over refund". The scam generally works best with senior citizens. This needs to be controlled better.

it's no longer a gift card if criminals get your balance. should call it charity cards.

The 3 digit security number was scratched off on mine. Card was worth $500 that i haven’t been able to use and visa and safeway is dragging their legs on reimbursement.

They will not let you view the card before hand, nor will they allow you to return the card if something is wrong. So how do the crooks return the cards and how are they being resold and altered, without the stores prior knowledge and assistance with this crime.

You don’t ask to inspect “AFTER” purchasing. They’re non refundable. Inspect before purchasing. If you’re buying it, we customers should see the quality of the product.

Inspect the card after you've already purchased it and gave your money to the scammers?. Yea, that doesn't make sense. Always indoect the card and envelope BEFORE you add money onto the card. BEFORE!

I was a victim. Lost $10 for a few weeks until I disputed the transaction with my cc.

Absolute scumbags. They’ll do anything, won’t they?

Thank you

If only scammers used their brains to do good things.

So messed up 🙁😕

Good to know. Thanks.

This has been going on for a while! Especially at Target 🎯. One group walks out with the gift cards, another separate group enters store and re- hangs gift card on pegs. Customers then purchase the tampered gift card thinking the cash is loaded to the card, but nope, a fraudulent bar code is replaced and that cash is going to unknown bank accounts, possible outside of U.S.. Retail treats cards like cash in respect to property so once you leave store with it, its all on you not them! And Retail is not doing anything about it because they made their money in advance. And its getting difficult to identify if the package has been tampered with. Cards should be sold from behind counter only, and inside locking cases to help eliminate folks walking out with them before they get scanned for actual legit purchases. Customers should demand retail stores take more responsibility for sales with these cards only behind Guest services desk or inside of individual locked cases. Thousands-Millions are being ripped off. Crazy its just now making the news. 💯. Its Organized retail electriconic theft. At your own risk, buyer beware.

Laws have to be passed by lawmakers that either eliminate the manufacturing of gift cards or improve ways of making gift cards tamper proof with new available technologies! As far as purchasing gift cards myself for any reason, it's now become out of the question... It would be better to carry cash hanging out of one's pockets with glaring neon signs that read: PLEASE ROB ME NO QUESTIONS ASKED!

Cash:: no middleman, no margins, & it’s the easiest fix. Doesn’t do much for businesses you don’t need, though.

This has been going on for years. Come guys! Keep up to date, damn

Thank for sharing 😊

If criminals put half of the effort into finding a real job that they do trying to screw people over, they would be wealthy.

I see this kind of situation all the time in apple support where the card is magically drained minutes later after it gets purchased and usually attached to a apple account in some asian name. You are alot better off buying gift cards online

Omg, what will they think of next.

I’ve rewinded a few times but still don’t really get what the scam is. When purchasing the GiftCard only one bar code is scannable to load it up with. If the “scammer” already cut that part off then the card won’t scan when purchasing.

Scary!

Great tip!

Try giving a GIFT CERTIFICATE to a LOCAL store or restaurant 😊

As if this is the worst of the crimes the bay area residents need to worry about. Wtf

That's way more work than applying for an actual job. 🤷🏿

If you get it at CVS forget about it they won’t refund it that happened to me and I was out of 100 bucks. Cvs says it’s not their problem.

Woah. This good to know.

How are they getting the "peel-off" stickers? Someone or some print shop has to be producing them. Maybe with further investigation you can find the source and turn them in...

Why don't they just lock them up until someone wants to purchase them and you can't get access to them unless you buy them.

Just give cash. Gift Cards are the dumbest gifts ever and they pollute.