A reader sent me this story and told me I could share with you guys after seeing my recent Safeway Home Depot tampering story. Before I get to what he’s written, it does make you wonder why it’s ONLY Safeway stories of late. To be fair, I do remember hacked USB cards at Kroger a few years ago, but the stories of late have mostly come from Safeway; are people just not buying gift cards from Kroger anymore? Because it makes no sense these scammers would only target Safeway. AND it’s not just one region; this seems to be a nationwide problem. The only other explanation I can think of is that it’s an inside job… Why? Because every time I’ve heard about where the card is used, it has been some Walmart in CA. Anyway, here’s what he wrote:
March 9th,2019
1.Purchased a $500 VGC in Albertsons store in AZ
2.Attached with the activation slip and receipt
March 23,2019
- On the outside the package looked as original. Opened the package.
- Unlike other cards, the gift card will be sticking to the package at at least two to four places with that sticky glue which gets stuck in the cards most of the time while tearing the package and every time you had to remove it from the card and throw it away. But this time, i saw nothing of that sort. And i saw a different shiny glue in the “terms and conditions slip”.(attached pic)
- But i did not see any damage in the card either with the card number, bar code or the cvv.
- Immediately i called the number at the back to find that it had only $1 balance instead of $500
- With the customer care, i came to know it was used in Walmart, CA for $498.xx (Posted on March 10th)
- I am suspecting the card might have been used on March 9th and got posted on March 10th.
- I reported it was fraud and they blocked the card and asked me to send a dispute form.
- The store was of no help at all. In fact i volunteered to find any other similar cards in their rack, but they were least interested.
Until now the case is not resolved.
I’m confident the reader will get his money back, but man what a pain in the ass. I remember dealing with this years ago. This is actually the first time I’ve heard of a Metabank being tampered with. The fraud-prone US Bank cards were never tampered with and still got stolen. Anyway, lesson learned here folks – START OPENING UP YOUR GIFT CARDS IN THE STORE! Take one minute to open up the packaging and make sure it’s “normal” before leaving the store.
