Archived Gift Card Purchase/Return Group

[Xanatos]

We have a very odd scam going on in my city. There are about 15 Targets in my city and one group of guests has hit all of them and no one in AP can figure out what they're doing.

They're buying a ton of stuff with a high dollar Target gift card (usually $200-$300), then driving directly to another store to return the items. They are the exact same items, they have the receipt, and they get the exact same amount back that they paid. The items are random and never the same.

From our perspective, they don't seem to be making any money because we give them back what they paid. The thing is that they have been doing this 6 or 7 days a week since the middle of May, so they have to be making money somehow. They are using a lot of different gift cards, but I think the return is put back on the same one that purchased it.

I can't help but think that it has something to do with it being purchased at one store and then returned at a different store on the same day (usually within a half hour) because you have to enter in all of the prices of the items and the tax. Does anyone have any idea what they're doing?

 

[TLTrouble]

We have seen this in our city as well. The system usually doesn't recognize the gift card on the same day so the guest will get cash back.

 

[Xanatos]

We have seen this in our city as well. The system usually doesn't recognize the gift card on the same day so the guest will get cash back.

They're getting the money back onto the gift card, so that's not it. We did see something similar to what you're talking about until we started giving it back to them on a gift card.

 

[redandkhaki]

are they earning a giftcard in the transaction?

 

[Rock Lobster]

I believe I have seen an alert group doing something similar before. I am pretty sure they tamper with the receipt and change the prices. I haven't heard about any activity out of this group in a long time, but the last time I saw one they were doing it with bedding. The item description on the receipt will be generic (bedding set) and you will have an item that looks like it, but the pricing is way off. They brought in a bedding set that was 59.99 and the receipt said 299.99. I looked up the DPCI on my phone and realized it was a Simply Shabby bedding set on the receipt, which wasn't what they brought in. They left after I showed them.

Could that be it?

 

[Retail Girl]

That or they are buying more than one of the product, and erasing the second line that says 2@single price....so it looks like the first line is the price for only one product.

For example:
Bedding set $100
2 @ $50

Only they erase the second line, so the unsuspecting clearly types in $100 for the one. Then they take the second one to another store and the same thing happens. They were doing that around here last year, but we caught on really quickly, informed the other stores, and now everyone knows about it so they gave up here.

That or they stole a bunch of a product, but bought one. Then they take that receipt around all day to different stores and keep getting money back on the gift card for the stolen items.

As I understand it, though, AP should be able to look up all the transaction history on one of those receipts to see if that is happening.

 

[3LetterDevil]

Could it be something like this?

The original gift cards are purchased with stolen credit cards. They then use them to purchase items, depleting them, so the system basically "deletes" the original (fraudulent) transaction. The return is then done, which basically sees the gift card as "new" card so it can't be tracked. However, the scammer now has the full value of the original card in somewhat "legal, untraceable" Target $$.

The reason I ask is that I was trying to combine my gift cards once and the cashier somehow zeroed out the balance on ALL of them. I had received one as a gift from my MIL, so I had the receipt, but the system showed it as "used." The cashier felt so bad and admitted she somehow screwed up and what I had so the GSA "fixed" it for me, but all of the transactions were "gone" from the system. They were all out back on the one my MIL gave me, but it was no longer linked to the original receipt or her credit card...

 

[judgemental]

It could be a lot of factors honestly, but the comments up there ^ seem to make sense.

What happens at my store a lot is being returning things with stolen receipts. What they do is they find receipts with high priced items and then go shop in the store and return these items. It's simple because the receipt has the DPCI and since everyone knows what a DPCI is they can easily find an item. They then get a gift card which they can use whenever.

What they also do is they buy one item, go to GS to cash out the gift card (in California it has to be under $9.99) and then they go and return the item they bought, but since we don't recognize same day items they usually go to other stores. IDK. There's also stores that cash out hundreds of gift cards for like a certain percentage.

 

[Produce Queen]

It is a good idea to be going into detail on how to scam Target on a public website? Honestly, I think this thread needs to be deleted.

 

[commiecorvus]

Pretty sure most of the people who are going to pull this kind of crap already have all the details laid out.
There are places on the Dark Web where you can get complete tutorials on stuff like this.

 

[Xanatos]

So, all of you have said things that our store has already encountered and deterred, though I appreciate your input. Except @tgtcpht . That has sort of been suggested, but not really looked into, so I'll have to ask. Although I think the original gift cards are paid for in cash, but I'll double check.

 

[Spitfire]

The solutions that involve editing the receipts don't make any sense, at least to me. When you do a return based on the receipt, you scan the receipts barcode or enter the receipt ID and VCD to pull it up in the system. Editing the paper receipts wouldn't edit what the system knows was on that sale, so what would that gain? Unless it's implied that the GSTL/LOD overrode the return amount to match the (fraudulently edited) receipt, but why would they do that without checking with AP/insidePOS first?

 

[Xanatos]

The solutions that involve editing the receipts don't make any sense, at least to me. When you do a return based on the receipt, you scan the receipts barcode or enter the receipt ID and VCD to pull it up in the system. Editing the paper receipts wouldn't edit what the system knows was on that sale, so what would that gain? Unless it's implied that the GSTL/LOD overrode the return amount to match the (fraudulently edited) receipt, but why would they do that without checking with AP/insidePOS first?

It will work in certain situations, though I'd rather not create a guide on how to scam Target so I won't go into detail.

 

[Spitfire]

It will work in certain situations, though I'd rather not create a guide on how to scam Target so I won't go into detail.

I can't think of any way this would be possible without utilising a bit of social engineering to take advantage of incompetent leaders, but if you say so.

Edit: I think I see what you're suggesting, but it could absolutely be avoided by well trained GSTMs and leadership, and solid routines of partnering with AP.

 

[Xanatos]

Update on the laundering idea: the gift cards were originally paid for in cash.

 

[3LetterDevil]

Fake bills? They buy gift cards at store A with fake $100s/$50s/$20s. Take GC to Store B to buy merch. Take merch to store C for return. Same basic scenario as using fraudulent CC, except using counterfeit $$.

 

[Xanatos]

Fake bills?

Nope.

 

[3LetterDevil]

You "think" it's going back on the same gift card or you "know" it is? Has anyone ever checked the card numbers to see if they match? I know there was a problem a few years ago near me where people were stealing gift card numbers. They would get the card info and had a program that would check the store's online system hourly or something to see if the card had been purchased/activated. Once it had been, the program would then transfer the balance onto another card, which the thief would then immediately use to purchase something. It could be something like this, but they could be combining multiple cards onto one or two, making purchases at one store. Then taking them back at another store to get the $$ put onto a "valid" card before the theft was ever noticed. They usually steal cards from a different area altogether so the stores don't put 2+2 together.

^ was mostly being done with the cards at various stores in the "multi-card" displays that had a fixed amount.

 

[Retail Girl]

The solutions that involve editing the receipts don't make any sense, at least to me. When you do a return based on the receipt, you scan the receipts barcode or enter the receipt ID and VCD to pull it up in the system. Editing the paper receipts wouldn't edit what the system knows was on that sale, so what would that gain? Unless it's implied that the GSTL/LOD overrode the return amount to match the (fraudulently edited) receipt, but why would they do that without checking with AP/insidePOS first?

These people know we have to enter in a price for same day returns at a different store.

 

[Xanatos]

You "think" it's going back on the same gift card or you "know" it is? Has anyone ever checked the card numbers to see if they match? I know there was a problem a few years ago near me where people were stealing gift card numbers. They would get the card info and had a program that would check the store's online system hourly or something to see if the card had been purchased/activated. Once it had been, the program would then transfer the balance onto another card, which the thief would then immediately use to purchase something. It could be something like this, but they could be combining multiple cards onto one or two, making purchases at one store. Then taking them back at another store to get the $$ put onto a "valid" card before the theft was ever noticed. They usually steal cards from a different area altogether so the stores don't put 2+2 together.

^ was mostly being done with the cards at various stores in the "multi-card" displays that had a fixed amount.

Just spoke with AP. They'll use the same card all day and switch every few days to a new card.

 

[redeye58]

Curiouser & curiouser....

 

[3LetterDevil]

My $$ is still that the original gc purchase was fraudulent somehow OR the card was stolen, which is why they switch every few days to a new card.

 

[Xanatos]

My $$ is still that the original gc purchase was fraudulent somehow OR the card was stolen, which is why they switch every few days to a new card.

The original gc purchase is always cash. They've spent thousands of dollars so we would've caught it by now if it was fake cash. Could be legit cash that was obtained via illegal activity, though.

Again, thank you all for your input. This has been driving all of us nuts, trying to figure out how they're making money off of us without gaining anything from the transactions (that we know about).

 

[NPC]

What are the kind of items they're returning? I know you said it's random, but what are some examples? Food? HBA? Clothing?

I've been suspicious of a few guests whom are poor and live by themselves, they can never finish the food they buy. So what happens is, they'll go buy new food, and then bring back the old stuff with their new receipt, saying it just tasted off. I can't prove this, but given the frequency of it happening, I'm confident it's the case. (The transactions are so small, I just vibe it and do it anyway.)

With clothing, I've seen guests reattach tags to full priced clothing items onto cheaper clearance items of clothing. Example, the guest will buy a $3 clearance Mossimo shirt, and a $19.99 Mossimo shirt. They'll take the tag from the more expensive item, and attach it to the cheaper item. So when they do a return, they return the cheap shirt they didn't want, for the price of the expensive one. You can check this by just comparing the DPCI on the tag on the in-seam of the shirt, with the DPCI on the tag.

If it's HBA items, could it possible they're tampering with the products? Like dumping out the expensive hair shampoo, and then filling it up with some cheap brand?

Once I had a guest photocopy a barcode from an expensive Lego set, then attach that to a cheap Lego set, and then they returned that cheap set for the price of the bigger one. This happened on some Magic the Gathering figurines as well, because certain characters cost more than others for some reason. We didn't notice it until a guest found it on the sales floor, and scanned it at the scanners, and couldn't figure out why one was so much more expensive than the others.

When they do their returns, that money is going back to their gift cards, right? Like they don't get cash back? Because I've had guests whom know we don't cash out multiple gift cards, so instead, they'll make a purchase with a ton of cheap items, and then they'll return those items individually, because any gift card return under $5, goes straight to cash.

 

[Xanatos]

The items are almost everything. Softlines, HBA, personal care, towels, electronics; basically anything that is easy to transport (nothing huge), and no food that I know of. They're returning things 20-25 minutes after purchasing them at a store that is 20-25 minutes away, so the only tampering would have to be done by a passenger in the car on the way. The money goes back on the gift card.

Here's an example of a return that I did. It's 3:55PM. Receipt from store A, completed at 3:36PM, total is $289.83 (I'm making up the total, but the times are pretty accurate because of how weird they were). Store A is about 20 minutes away from my store. Guest wants to return every item on the receipt because these items were for a baby shower (all infant items) and she realized the shower is out of town and she can't make it (which she must've realized within the last 20 minutes, right? Right? Yeah...). Original purchase was made with a gift card that had $287.75 on it, and the remaining $2.03 was paid in cash.

I scan the receipt, type in the VCD, then start scanning the items. I triple check the price of the item to make sure I don't mess anything up and I type in the tax for each item. Final total comes to $289.83, which I verify to be the same as the original purchase. Register wants it all back onto a gift card, which is fine with the guest as she pulls out her own gift card for me to scan. I did not verify that it was the same as the original gift card, but AP seems to think they reuse the same one several times before getting a new one. Return completed at 4:05PM, 29 minutes after the original purchase.

Guest leaves. AP verifies with store A that the guest left store A and came straight here - did not stop at guest service to do a missed coupon or anything, she just went straight from the checkout to the exit and to her car. AP and I remain baffled.