Archived Target Card Scam

[Senior Citizen]

I was working service desk today. Mid-morning, a senior aged female guest came up and asked to buy 2 Target gift cards, $1000 on each, paying in cash. Because of the cash involved, I called GSA over to handle it and moved on. A few hours later, another elderly female guest came up asking rather confusedly, how she could buy several thousand dollars worth of Target gift cards.

That set off some alarms for me. Asked her further about it. She said the person who called her and asked her to do it told her she couldn't talk to anyone about it. More alarms!

I'm a friendly old guy and encouraged her, since she was a little confused, to explain why she had withdrawn cash from her bank to buy the cards.

Turns out, someone had called her, telling her that her son would be going to jail unless she followed their instructions: 1) buy $2000 in target cards, 2) scrape off the seal on back and call them back with the code numbers, 3) tell no one.

At this point, I called AP over and they "figured out" she was being scammed. Duh.

Please, anyone in GS or AP who is not already aware of this, be on alert. The phone number my guest was told to call to give them her gift card code was not in my state, so it could be a nationwide scam.

BTW, if you happen to catch this and save an elderly lady from a several thousand dollar loss at your store, don't necessary expect a pat on the back or any recognition for it. Push Red Cards for that.

 

[signingminion]

I was working service desk today. Mid-morning, a senior aged female guest came up and asked to buy 2 Target gift cards, $1000 on each, paying in cash. Because of the cash involved, I called GSA over to handle it and moved on. A few hours later, another elderly female guest came up asking rather confusedly, how she could buy several thousand dollars worth of Target gift cards.

That set off some alarms for me. Asked her further about it. She said the person who called her and asked her to do it told her she couldn't talk to anyone about it. More alarms!

I'm a friendly old guy and encouraged her, since she was a little confused, to explain why she had withdrawn cash from her bank to buy the cards.

Turns out, someone had called her, telling her that her son would be going to jail unless she followed their instructions: 1) buy $2000 in target cards, 2) scrape off the seal on back and call them back with the code numbers, 3) tell no one.

At this point, I called AP over and they "figured out" she was being scammed. Duh.

Please, anyone in GS or AP who is not already aware of this, be on alert. The phone number my guest was told to call to give them her gift card code was not in my state, so it could be a nationwide scam.

BTW, if you happen to catch this and save an elderly lady from a several thousand dollar loss at your store, don't necessary expect a pat on the back or any recognition for it. Push Red Cards for that.

Its a very common scam. Nationwide. Targeting the elderly because they are often easily confused and don't know enough to quickly Google a name or number.

 

[Kartman]

Why did you feel the need to quote the previous post?

Did you think we wouldn't know who you were responding to?

 

[Senior Citizen]

I wish someone could have made me or my GSA how common a scam that one is. Thankfully, I kept the second guest from getting ripped, but I feel awful about the first who had $2000 stolen from her today.

 

[Senior Citizen]

Kartman, Huh, do i know you? I like a lot of your quips Who do think he or she waz responding to?

 

[HRZone]

Its a very common scam. Nationwide. Targeting the elderly because they are often easily confused and don't know enough to quickly Google a name or number.

Yup I heard of it a few months ago. I feel like we educate our kids about shady characters but not necessarily the elderly

 

[Frontlanegirl]

Had the same thing happen in my store today. I was aware of the scam and told my elderly guest about the scam and to contact his grandson to make sure he was safe. All stores should be made aware of this scam and the police notified.

 

[Pelon1071]

Yup, this is way more common then I wish it was. Just like IRS scams, they take advantage of human nature. They use scare tactics to get usually the less educated people (but sometimes other's fall for the scam.) It's like the green dot scam. It's very sad, and it pisses me off that people do that.

 

[NPC]

Why did you feel the need to quote the previous post?

Did you think we wouldn't know who you were responding to?

You get a notification when you quote.

 

[Pelon1071]

Why did you feel the need to quote the previous post?

Did you think we wouldn't know who you were responding to?

You get a notification when you quote.

Vary true.

 

[Kaitii]

to be fair you also get a notification just by pinging

 

[Hardlinesmaster]

You did the right thing. You could of been your mom or dad being scammed.

 

[carramrod]

These are so common that my company has put in a policy of having to have a manager or assistant manager present whenever anyone is trying to buy over $300 in gift cards. We've stopped quite a few people from getting new scammed that way.

 

[thetargetman]

Sounds like another IRS scam! I scammed the scammer. He wanted me to get 2 $1000 dollar Itune gift cards to cover my taxes that I still owed, I told him "sir the lady at the store said I would have to buy 20 $100 dollar Itune cards. Oh man he got so mad lol! I was LAUGHING on my end at him and he figured I was pranking him. oh I wish I recorded it!

 

[Megaparsec]

"We're one of those jails... those jails that take... gift cards... for stores... that aren't related to the government jail system at all... because we're a special jail! AND WE HAVE YOUR SON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

 

[cobycord]

I was working service desk today. Mid-morning, a senior aged female guest came up and asked to buy 2 Target gift cards, $1000 on each, paying in cash. Because of the cash involved, I called GSA over to handle it and moved on. A few hours later, another elderly female guest came up asking rather confusedly, how she could buy several thousand dollars worth of Target gift cards.

That set off some alarms for me. Asked her further about it. She said the person who called her and asked her to do it told her she couldn't talk to anyone about it. More alarms!

I'm a friendly old guy and encouraged her, since she was a little confused, to explain why she had withdrawn cash from her bank to buy the cards.

Turns out, someone had called her, telling her that her son would be going to jail unless she followed their instructions: 1) buy $2000 in target cards, 2) scrape off the seal on back and call them back with the code numbers, 3) tell no one.

At this point, I called AP over and they "figured out" she was being scammed. Duh.

Please, anyone in GS or AP who is not already aware of this, be on alert. The phone number my guest was told to call to give them her gift card code was not in my state, so it could be a nationwide scam.

BTW, if you happen to catch this and save an elderly lady from a several thousand dollar loss at your store, don't necessary expect a pat on the back or any recognition for it. Push Red Cards for that.

This actually happened a few months ago when I was helping the service desk. I immediately told her that she might want to wait before she makes the purchase but she was adamant about getting five $1000 gift cards smh.

 

[Bosch]

This actually happened a few months ago when I was helping the service desk. I immediately told her that she might want to wait before she makes the purchase but she was adamant about getting five $1000 gift cards smh.

We have had this happen a few times. We make sure to tell them that a jail/IRS wants one thing and only one thing - cash money. Not gift cards.