Despite industry pushback, Maryland became the first state to require secure packaging for most gift cards sold at stores. “It will change packaging nationally,” one retail insider predicted.
From the article it sounds like what they’re doing is replacing the activation keys on the cards and then putting them back on the shelf, then when the card is activated what really happens is the money is loaded on the card they have.
Card draining is a scheme in which thieves remove gift cards from stores, capture their numeric codes or swap them out for counterfeit cards, and place the products back on display. When an unsuspecting customer loads money onto a tampered or counterfeit card, criminals access it online and steal the balance.
Each card has an activation code that the cashier scans. They then enter a dollar amount to load on the card. That’s how it is supposed to work. What happens in this scam is that thieves shoplift a couple cards. They take one card, for themselves. Then duplicate the activation code from that card, and the activation codes on the other cards which they then secretly put back on the rack at the store. When someone goes to the store and buys an altered card, the cashier scans it and loads the purchaser’s money onto the card that the thieves already have.
Aren’t gift cards activated electronically?
Maybe it’s just a Canadian thing but if your gift cards are sitting preloaded and tappable like… who the fuck thought that was a good idea.
From the article it sounds like what they’re doing is replacing the activation keys on the cards and then putting them back on the shelf, then when the card is activated what really happens is the money is loaded on the card they have.
From the article…
I’ve experienced this in the past. Luckily the store Winners (a Canadian chain) was good enough to replace the cards.
Each card has an activation code that the cashier scans. They then enter a dollar amount to load on the card. That’s how it is supposed to work. What happens in this scam is that thieves shoplift a couple cards. They take one card, for themselves. Then duplicate the activation code from that card, and the activation codes on the other cards which they then secretly put back on the rack at the store. When someone goes to the store and buys an altered card, the cashier scans it and loads the purchaser’s money onto the card that the thieves already have.