SDM - Gift Card Scams reminder

[canpip1]

In the past 2 years, people bought SDM GC and the value was stolen.

The crooks have found a way to rob you of your gift card balance. If you buy Gift Cards from a display rack that has various store cards you may become a victim of theft.

Gift cards have a unique number in a magnetic strip that is used to track usage and outstanding balances. This usually works well, and has the benefit that you often won't lose your remaining balance if you lose the gift card, since you can simply call to report the card as stolen or lost.
Now imagine that a scammer comes into a store that displays gift cards on public racks (such as Wal-Mart) with a small and inexpensive mag-strip scanner in his pocket. This scanner can easily read and store the unique gift card serial numbers.
So, the scammer simply grabs some of these gift cards from the rack, finds a quiet place and quickly scans each card to get its unique serial number. They then put the cards back (or leave them somewhere in the store) since they are done with them.
(Incidentally, this high tech approach isn't even needed. The crook can simply copy the unique numbers by hand on a pad of paper. However, this is much more time consuming.)
Depending on the gift card packaging, this can be very easy to accomplish or the crook might need to pry the gift card from its base and then carefully reposition it back after stealing the number. In either case, it's not very difficult for the scammer to do this.
Next, real customers come in to buy some of these gift cards and "charge" them with real money.
How does the scammer know which gift cards have been charged? Every few days, he simply calls the gift card phone number and enters the unique numbers to find out which cards have been charged -- and what the remaining balances are.
Most of these systems don't require a password, so it is very easy for the scammer to do this. Other times the scammer is able to steal the PIN at the same time as the gift card number.


And since most of these gift cards aren't given to the recipients until Christmas, most of the cards will be fully charged!
The scammer can then go on a shopping spree and drain the gift card balances.

Always keep your receipt as a proof of purchase as long as there is money stored on the gift card. Since many retailers can track where the gift card was purchased, activated and used, if the card is stolen, some retailers will replace the card for you if you have your receipt.

After all these happening, SDM still have GC that don't have a pin, when you buy SDM GC please buy the one with a pin to avoid trouble.

[peachies]

Thats crazy...how can they spend the balance without actually having the GC?? I know you could do it online shopping...does shoppers even have online shopping available??

[canpip1]

SDM might not have on line shopping, they steal your balance and transfer it ot another SDM GC.

[screamy]

Thats crazy...how can they spend the balance without actually having the GC?? I know you could do it online shopping...does shoppers even have online shopping available??

The same way they can scan someone's purse or wallet on the street and get the info for regular credit cards with these scanners.

They can use them for online purchases, or use cards with a similar magnetic strip and load the card information onto them...presto, "valid" credit cards to all appearances...they can shop anywhere with them. It happens all the time.

The only real protection against them is a metal casing; even the much-touted chip technology isn't much of a deterrent, since not all places have chip card-accepting technology. I carry my cards (including my Optimum and AMs cards) in a small metal business card holder, have for years.

[peachies]

I see...i actually had my debit card scammed a week ago. Someone tried to use it in the USA but my bank immediately froze it because it was very suspicious..i'm glad they did..not that the scammers would have got much..LOL..I couldn't believe that they could do this with a plan old debit card. I still don't even know exactly how they got my info. Crazy crazy world

[torontogal12]

Scammers can even steal balances on cards that DO have pins. It happened to my mom. Don't put more money on GCs than u need to

[Autum]

I also keep my credit cards wrapped in a ribbon of foil so scammers cant get the number.Thanks for this information on gift cards which I was not aware of.

[SavenRaven]

I see...i actually had my debit card scammed a week ago. Someone tried to use it in the USA but my bank immediately froze it because it was very suspicious..i'm glad they did..not that the scammers would have got much..LOL..I couldn't believe that they could do this with a plan old debit card. I still don't even know exactly how they got my info. Crazy crazy world

My husband had his Banking card compromised as well, just last week. The culprit was Overseas and the Loss Prevention department caught it and suspended the card.

This has happened to us several times now.

[osita]

That why I use the same gc over and over and I have the same gc for couples of months because every 2 weeks I use my gift card and one cashier in particular knows me and she ask me are you loading your gc, and it good to know so we can be more carefull

[c_mcarthur]

scary stuff.
luckily I usually buy gift cards the day of or a day before I give it to the recipent lol cut down on the chance of it being tampered with.

[nessa23]

crazy!! I had no idea. Thanks for the head's up!

[ticul]

I am sososooooooo tierd of bad bad people.....they are every were

[Decaf]

SDM might not have on line shopping, they steal your balance and transfer it ot another SDM GC.

I can see someone shopping online with the stolen GC #, but how can they transfer to another GC, wouldn't that be traceable? Also can they trace the crook who keep calling for the GC balance?

I always grab the GC from the rack rather than ask the cashier to get them for me and so far no had trouble.

[torontogal12]

They print a fake GC and put the same numbe as the real one. No transferring. Cashier and cash register don't know the difference. The scammers use all the balance right away. No optimum card. Nothing traceable. I bet the phones they use are registered under fake names and paid for with stolen credit cards...

I can see someone shopping online with the stolen GC #, but how can they transfer to another GC, wouldn't that be traceable? Also can they trace the crook who keep calling for the GC balance?

I always grab the GC from the rack rather than ask the cashier to get them for me and so far no had trouble.

[heycinderella]

how about the ones that are empty and can be added any value by a cashier? Are they safer?