Can someone explain how this scam works? I honestly don’t know..
fast forward to 6:49 in the video. the officer is explaining it to a shopper in the store.
From the show transcripts:
7:02
The thing that’s happening lately is
7:03
usually the nudity gift cards those the
7:04
old ones Yeah People will take the old
7:06
ones and they’ll uh grab the numbers
7:09
from them and then they’ll stick them
7:12
they’ll come here and they’ll stick them
7:13
back on the shelf and then when you load
7:14
the money on them it’ll download and
7:16
you’ll they’ll just get the money right
7:18
away And the one I’m giving you won’t
7:20
get the money No it’ll have nothing on
7:22
it in like a minute of them activating
7:24
it Oh so Oh thank you Yeah All right
Someone steals a bunch of new, unloaded cards. They scratch off the gray masking and write down the security number. Then they reapply a masking and put the cards back on the rack. After that they periodically log on using the security number to see if it’s been activated and loaded with money. If it is they use it as if the card was in their possession.
On the back of the gift card there is a long number - usually 10-16 numbers long. Then there is a 4 number PIN number under a silver scratch off panel.
The thieves steal the card and record the number and the PIN number for each card. They buy the silver film to re-cover the PIN number so it looks unused or untampered with.
Then they put the cards back on racks where people will purchase them and load them with money. The thieves have the numbers already so all they have to do is to keep running the numbers and PIN codes until someone purchases the cards and loads the money and then the criminals steal the money.