On Monday, I wrote about my issue with some hacked Amazon gift cards at Safeway. I tried to get help from Amazon, but they were of no use saying that because I didn’t buy it from them, then they couldn’t help me, which we all know makes no sense since they blocked my account thinking I was using fraudulent gift cards. The face palm is strong with this one folks.
Anyhow, I went back to the store on Tuesday and asked to speak to a manager. A nice head cashier who I’ve seen there over the years approached me and asked what’s up. I told her the entire story and after I finished, I said, “You should go over there and grab this design Amazon gift card and I can show you they’ve been tampered with.” She goes, “I can’t do that…. because we pulled all the Amazon variable gift cards this morning. Yeah, someone was about to buy one earlier and we stopped them. There’s been rampant scams going on with these cards.” I was pleasantly shocked that she knew the issue, and I’m glad I caught her today when she pulled them. She happily refunded me the $500 back to my card.
Afterwards, I asked her if it was ALL Amazon or just the 2 old designs. She goes, “Just the 2 old designs. We haven’t had a problem with the newer birthday / congratulations cards.” I asked her how the scammers were doing this because I had inspected the card and they looked fine. She said they would take the cards home and carefully lift up the back, expose the pin and use glue/adhesive them back. She was impressed at how good they were in doing the scams. I then asked, “So what happens if I go to a different Safeway store?” She goes, “Oh it’s a rampant issue. I’d avoid all these designs if you can.” I then asked her what other cards are prone to scams. She goes, “Reloadable ones like Green Dot, etc.” She didn’t specifically mention those horrendous US Bank Mastercards back in the day. I thanked her for her time and then went to my local Safeway.
At this Safeway, I took the newer design cards up to the front desk and checked out there. After the cashier scanned the first one, I asked him if I could open up the card to make sure they haven’t been tampered with. He then went on to say that he knew of the scammed gift cards, and that they regularly go out there to check the Amazon AND STARBUCKS gift cards. If they saw any tampering, they’d throw them away. He seemed very confident in being able to detect these tampered cards.
Of course it’s a matter of time before the scammers get their hands on the new designs and tamper those too even though they do look harder to tamper since you have to peel off more things to expose the gift card itself. Regardless of the design, I still recommend you open the gift card before paying or leaving the store to make sure the card hasn’t been tampered with.
I find it impressive that the scammer was able to redeem the gift card within 2 hours. That means they must have some kind of master database with all these hacked cards that they are constantly checking for a balance. This probably explains why Amazon took down their GC checker. On the chat with Amazon, the rep did say that the gift card still had ~$300 on it and he was able to block the gift card. This was a bit intriguing because a) the scammer didn’t redeem it to their account but instead must have made a $200 purchase using the code and b) that they would attempt such a high purchase. If I had only put $100 on the card, they would have failed. I am a bit upset with Amazon for not trying to do more to catch the fraudster, but I guess this is what happens when you outsource support overseas and the reps DGAF.
BUY THIS ONE:
NOT THESE DESIGNS:
I’m sorry, its just kind of amusing to me… Not that you got scammed and potentially could have lost a good chunk of money… But the fact that you guys think that there’s some kind of crazy big master database or something LMFAO. The stuff that you see in movies all the crazy complicated scammers and hackers do… Is just completely exaggerated for entertainment. LOL trust and believe that the scammer is sitting there calling the back of the gift card or looking it up online over and over and over again until they finally see a balance. Also why would you be surprised that he attempted such a large purchase? It’s a gift card not a credit card you don’t have to show ID to purchase something with it, also he would know exactly how much was on the card cuz like I said before he just like anyone else could access it by calling the number on the back of the card or looking up online. Also it’s not just the old designs they can get any gift card. It only takes a few minutes to take it apart write the numbers down, take a picture of it whatever, seal it back up and it put it back on the Shelf… Not rocket science.