Thieves know gift cards are in high demand, especially during holidays and for birthdays, and they’ve developed a new type of scam that involves placing fake barcodes on physical in-store gift cards to steal your money.
Thieves applying fake barcodes to gift cards to steal your money
Criminals are always looking for new ways to run a con, and the latest scam involves individuals printing fraudulent barcodes on stickers that they place on legitimate physical gift cards at retail stores.
Further, the scammers are using perfectly-sized stickers with high-quality printing that are cut to precisely lay over the original barcode. Unless you’re looking and scratch your nail to feel it, you’re unlikely to notice the difference.
In a TikTok post, a former police officer described purchasing a $50 gift card for a department store. However, the cashier noticed that when she scanned the card for purchase, it rang up on the screen as a gas gift card.
The bad news is, if the cashier hadn’t noticed the mistake, the purchaser would have been stuck with an inactivated gift card while the scammer walked away with the money, Yahoo reported.
The fake barcode scam works like this:
Unsuspecting customers visit their local retail store, a place where they normally wouldn’t give a second thought that they could be purchasing a fraudulent product, SI Live reports.
Spotting the gift card rack in the store, the customer purchases a gift card to send for someone’s birthday, holiday or other gift.
Unknown to the consumer, criminals are printing out stickers with fraudulent barcodes and applying them over the legitimate barcode that is printed on the back of the card.
When a card is scanned for purchase at the store, the fraudulent barcode reroutes the money to an account held by the scammer, according to the NYPD.
At that point, your money’s gone, and the gift card you are holding is worthless.
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) warns consumers on its website: “They [gift cards] also have fewer protections for buyers compared to some other payment options. They’re more like cash: once you use a gift card, the money on it is gone.”
How to protect yourself against fraudulent gift cards
Security experts advise using your fingers on the back of a gift card to check if they’ve been tampered with or doctored in any way.
-Run your finger or thumbnail at the corner of the barcode to see if you can feel for a sticker or lifted up. If the sticker lifts up, and you see another barcode underneath, it could be evidence of tampering. Check the numbers on the tube barcodes to see if they are the same.
-When purchasing, don’t use self-checkout, and ask the cashier to verify that the card registers on the screen as the same you are purchasing.
-Some experts say opting for digital gift cards is often more secure than purchasing a physical gift card.
The NYPD 123rd precinct tweeted the following tips for protecting yourself against barcode sticker gift card scams:
– Inspect gift cards before purchasing. Scratch the barcode to check for a barcode sticker.
-Ask your cashier to assist in validating gift cards before purchasing.
