Gift card scam hides in plain sight
Criminals are increasingly targeting gift cards in retail stores by tampering with packaging to steal card numbers and codes before they are purchased. Once a customer buys and activates the card, the thieves drain the balance remotely.
Why it matters
This scam highlights a growing security vulnerability in retail gift card displays that can lead to significant financial loss for consumers.
New warning over fraud that begins with criminals tampering with supermarket displays.
Australians are being warned to inspect gift cards carefully before buying them, following the discovery of tampered Apple cards on supermarket shelves around the country.
Unlike many other scams, this fraud does not begin with a suspicious phone call or message. The customer purchases the card from a legitimate retailer, unaware that criminals may already have stolen the information needed to access its value.
The technique is known as “card draining”. Criminals remove inactive gift cards from store displays, carefully open the packaging and record the card numbers and redemption codes.
They then reseal the packages and return the cards to the shelves. Because the cards have not yet been purchased, there is initially no money to steal.
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