Gift Card Fraud, it's finally happened to me.

[Trinigal]

Tried to use a $100 and a $50 gift card this morning at Shoppers. Were told both were empty, even though I took them from their holders this morning. Was on the phone with the gift card people, the rep said that my $100 was used up on November 27th (bought on the 15th of November during their gift card bonus points promo). I never spend $100 at a time at Shoppers. Their system went down when she was checking my $50 one. Of course the fine print states that lost, stolen, or unauthorized use cards will not be replaced or replenished.

I've heard of gift card fraud, but neglected to take my usual precautions of getting ones from behind the counter. I also thought since that these had the scratch off PINs, I would be safe. Losing $150 smarts, but not much I could do about it now. Maybe I should just skip using SDM gift cards in the future, as the extra points not worth the risk.

[torontogal12]

How did you buy the gift cards? Did you use a credit or debit card or something that is traceable? Swipe your Optimum? You can prob get your money back if there's a paper trail to back it up

[Trinigal]

Thanks for your reply. I used my credit card and swiped my Optimum. I also have the paper receipts for the gift cards in question. If the Shoppers gift card rep ever gets back to me, I'll ask if an Optimum card was used when those gift cards were used.

[BumbleB]

Pat Foran on CTV news just recently did a report on Gift cards. The report has some great tips.

You can watch it here.. http://video.theloop.ca/news/watch/-...1#.UuadcjiEiUk

It was a Best Buy card bought at SDM.

[Trinigal]

Tried calling the gift card service line again. Apparently the cards were used last November at two Shoppers Drugmarts I've never shopped at. The rep says past activity looks suspicious - there were calls made to check on balances around that time in November. Shoppers customer service is supposed to get back to me within 24 hours. Fingers crossed that I might get my money back.

Hope other people can learn from my experience .

[walkonby]

that does sound like SDM is going to get to the bottom of it, at least they have proof of someone inquiring and then using the balances up, btw how does someone pay with a purchase if they do not have the actual GC in their possession? Unless it is all used up with online purchases maybe?

[Trinigal]

Got a call this afternoon from Shoppers customer service. I've been assigned a case number and they are looking into it. From what I read up about gift card fraud, the scammers who do this can replicate the code on a low value or blank gift card and can thus use it in store.

[torontogal12]

My mom was defrauded of gift cards maybe 2 years ago. This is what the Bay staff told us, explaining how the scammers do it

http://forum.smartcanucks.ca/372012-...a/#post5724358

that does sound like SDM is going to get to the bottom of it, at least they have proof of someone inquiring and then using the balances up, btw how does someone pay with a purchase if they do not have the actual GC in their possession? Unless it is all used up with online purchases maybe?

[BumbleB]

Terrible what scammers will do. Thank you torontogal12 - read your informative post. Great info.

[tjthemanto]

Tried to use a $100 and a $50 gift card this morning at Shoppers. Were told both were empty, even though I took them from their holders this morning. Was on the phone with the gift card people, the rep said that my $100 was used up on November 27th (bought on the 15th of November during their gift card bonus points promo). I never spend $100 at a time at Shoppers. Their system went down when she was checking my $50 one. Of course the fine print states that lost, stolen, or unauthorized use cards will not be replaced or replenished.

I've heard of gift card fraud, but neglected to take my usual precautions of getting ones from behind the counter. I also thought since that these had the scratch off PINs, I would be safe. Losing $150 smarts, but not much I could do about it now. Maybe I should just skip using SDM gift cards in the future, as the extra points not worth the risk.

I guess this is more of a fraud and not that your card was lost or stolen or even used unauthorised i.e the same physical card in your possession was used by someone else without your authority.

Someone coping the card number and transferring your balance and doing some hitech computer stuff shouldn't fall under the lost, stolen or unauthorised use category...its more a glitch & security flaw in their system , which criminals are exploiting.

Not your fault , its not that you were careless with your GC or anything, all you did was you just buy a GC of the shelf ..like everyone else ..nothing more or nothing else. You didn't even get a chance to use it , so how is it your fault ? You didn't even get a chance to be careless with it for them to pass the buck.

All this nonsense took place even before you got a chance to use it

If someone does that to my credit card or debit card , I get fully reimbursed by my bank for that skimming fraud , coping numbers fraud etc..so why can't they do the same for gift cards

[tjthemanto]

Tried to use a $100 and a $50 gift card this morning at Shoppers. Were told both were empty, even though I took them from their holders this morning. Was on the phone with the gift card people, the rep said that my $100 was used up on November 27th (bought on the 15th of November during their gift card bonus points promo). I never spend $100 at a time at Shoppers. Their system went down when she was checking my $50 one. Of course the fine print states that lost, stolen, or unauthorized use cards will not be replaced or replenished.

I've heard of gift card fraud, but neglected to take my usual precautions of getting ones from behind the counter. I also thought since that these had the scratch off PINs, I would be safe. Losing $150 smarts, but not much I could do about it now. Maybe I should just skip using SDM gift cards in the future, as the extra points not worth the risk.

Looks like they scratched the PINS before hand and sent both the PINS & the card number to be cloned elsewhere. An exact replica/clone is made of the GC you are going to buy by these scammers.

Then they cooly put the original card back on the shelf for you to buy it. They keep on checking the balance each day to see if someone has bought it or not. The moment they see a balance has been loaded , they now use the replica/clone of your card ( which they had made earlier ) ..to empty your balance. Your card remains in your possession all the time , but the scammer are using the clone card to empty its balance, even though it had a scratch PIN on it

The place where you scratched the PIN can easily be recovered again with a small black tape thingy to make it look like the PIN is intact and never been scratched before ..but its been scratched before & just recovered again

So even these PIN cards are not safe anymore..I think when you buy a GC the customer should be allowed to enter their own PIN when they buy it, to make it more secure at the cash.

[MillieH]

I had this happen two years ago with SDM cards, same scenario. At first i tried getting help through the shoppers help line.. got this one guy, omgosh he never does anything.. ever.. if a guy answers now , I just hang up.. Finally I got frustrated and took it to their facebook page.. two of my cards still had the hang strips on them. They told me to photcopy and fax the info to a # they gave me. They sent me 3 new cards which I used immediately :O) and I asked for 10k points for the trouble I went through.

They can actually track down where the cards were used and get video of the peeps that used them. I ended up talking to the store manager and from how he responded he would have handed it faster and easier.. As long as you have the receipts and the cards, you should be good. Don't give up. I bought 4500$ worth of cards at that time..the only ones that I had issue with were the SDM ones..

[Trinigal]

Thanks for sharing your experience, MillieH. I'll call 1-800-Shoppers on Friday and see how they will resolved this (I was told they will be investigating this). I might have to go to see the store manager as the next step.

[Decaf]

Hope you get your money back soon. Happened to me in November too but Esso did reimburse me so it`s all good. I won`t be buying GCs ever again.

[tjthemanto]

This gift card scam is getting out of hand day by day ..and the stores are not doing much about it .

These scams should be monitored the same way credit cards , debit cards or even counterfiet cash scams are monitored , so hard working folks don't lose their money. Too easy to pull this scam..IMHO.