Archived What's their scam?

[NPC]

So I've been having a few unusual transactions at my work, that raise nothing but red flags for me. They started around the holidays of 2014, and have occurred randomly since then, however there are many similarities and trends amongst these transactions. Despite that, I have yet to figure out what exactly their scam is, nor can I ever find any way to deny their transaction.

Basically what's happening is, a guest comes into the store, picks up a few random greeting cards, maybe a bag of chips from the front end, and then ONE Target gift card. The guest will purchase the gift card for some huge amount of money, anywhere from $400-$1000. After they make that transaction, the guest immediately grabs another gift card, without even leaving the lane, and purchases it for another high amount. Of course, for such a high dollar transaction, I always make sure to check the ID and credit card. The names match, but I'll explain below how even that is suspicious.

Here are all the reasons I find these transactions suspicious.

1.) The IDs are ALWAYS from out of state. The name will match the credit card, but the names with either be super long and complex, OR overly simplistic. The one I had today was "Joe Green."

2.) The guest always purchases 2 Target gift cards, but never in the same transaction. Also, they don't go for the second gift card until they see the first transaction clears.

3.) The high value of the gift cards. They're bought in pairs of ($500 and $900) or ($400 and $400) or ($1000, and $1000)

4.) The type of guests. I hate to sound judgmental, but 100% of these transactions have all been done by people all of the same gender, age range, and ethnicity. They all dress the same, and come in at the same time of day, which is at night.

5.) The items they buy with the gift card. It's always greeting cards, and snacks from the front end.

SO, what is this? Is it just a coincidence? I never sell such expensive gift cards, and when I do, the circumstance are never so consistent like this. I can't for the life of me figure out what they're doing, or If its something I can even stop. All I can imagine is that they're using fraudulent credit cards of some kind, or conducting some kind of identity theft. Has anyone else had unusual transactions like this? And does any of this sound shady to you?

 

[Interrobang]

I've rung up very similar transactions, sans snacks. It's always, "I'm going to a baby shower." They would buy baby shower cards with multiple $200-$500 gift cards. Another time it was a bunch of $200+ gift cards, three or four canisters of baby formula, and what I recall was an expensive breast pump.
I think that purchasing the snacks is just something to throw people off. That, or they always have a case of the munchies whilst committing credit card fraud.
I always notify AP of any suspicious activity. I don't expect AP to follow up with me, but I do wonder what, if anything, happened to the thieves.

 

[doodlebug]

I get them a lot, but they're buying the Visa and American Express gift cards along with a greeting card to make it look "legit". My guess is stolen credit cards. But I was told not to check ID since we don't check everyone's ID.

We also got a lot of the AmEx reloads with Vanilla gift cards. Thankfully, since Target won't accept third party payments for those anymore, we get to tell them no

 

[DoWork]

Definitely stolen credit cards. Card companies should be limiting such purchases because they're considered cash advances, but they can't because of their archaic technology. I'd be curious if you ever see the same person doing it. I would assume if you notified AP, they'd discuss it with other district AP to see if you can get the same person doing it to multiple stores.

 

[judgemental]

stolen credit cards, fraud, everything you can think of is what's happening. a lot of the time AP knows what's going on and they tell the cashiers to either deny their card or make some excuse as to why you can't accept it because, like i said, they're committing fraud. you should always check for an ID when it's big numbers like that or call the GSTL/GSA/AP over if you're not certain, most likely they'll get scared and just say "never mind". MAKE SURE TO CHECK THE CARD BECAUSE YOU CAN'T BUY GIFT CARDS WITH OTHER GIFT CARDS (at least in my store).

 

[TeamRed]

Do you get a prompt with the 3rd party credit cards?? It hasn't happened at my store yet.

 

[NPC]

So far, I haven't had any repeats of people doing this. It's been a different person every time. I always tell my AP about it, but I haven't heard any updates. We get people trying to buy the Visa Gift Cards too. However, those always seem to get denied. I rarely ever have someone suspicious successfully buy one for a large amount of money. It's very strange. The success rate of the Target gift cards has been 100%, yet 0% for Visa Gift Cards. I would love to have the satisfaction of knowing what exactly is going on, and that these people eventually get caught.

OH! Also, our AP team is almost always gone by 9:30, maybe 10 the latest....which also happens to be when all the shady stuff happens. Just great. Haha. Our APs are awesome, but boy do I wish we'd have one until closing.

 

[OffYaPhone]

I've had a few guests reload their AMEX prepaid REDcards with gift cards that have a PIN. I kept asking myself, "Are there gift cards that provide a PIN number?" whenever I rang them. This was maybe 2 weeks ago. Alas, a guest came in my lane last Friday and tried the same and it didn't work, so I guess they caught on pretty quickly.

 

[NPC]

I've had a few guests reload their AMEX prepaid REDcards with gift cards that have a PIN. I kept asking myself, "Are there gift cards that provide a PIN number?" whenever I rang them. This was maybe 2 weeks ago. Alas, a guest came in my lane last Friday and tried the same and it didn't work, so I guess they caught on pretty quickly.

Luckily I haven't had any problems with the PrePaid reloadable gift card things. I just see a lot of older parents buying them for their kids in school, stuff like that. I once had a lady use a gift card with a pin. It wouldn't slide, so I had to do it all manually. When it asked for the Security Code on the back, she tried to give me a different code to use than what was on the card. Of course we had to deny her transaction.

 

[GSAhole]

Luckily I haven't had any problems with the PrePaid reloadable gift card things. I just see a lot of older parents buying them for their kids in school, stuff like that. I once had a lady use a gift card with a pin. It wouldn't slide, so I had to do it all manually. When it asked for the Security Code on the back, she tried to give me a different code to use than what was on the card. Of course we had to deny her transaction.

You shouldn't be typing in the security code on the back...you should be entering in the last four digits on the front of their card. Maybe that's what she was trying to give you?

 

[NPC]

You shouldn't be typing in the security code on the back...you should be entering in the last four digits on the front of their card. Maybe that's what she was trying to give you?

No not that. I know what you're talking about, but that wasn't what it was prompting for. The card's magnetic strip wasn't working. I had to type in the numbers manually, thus it asked for the Security Code on the back.

 

[GSAhole]

ohhhhhhh okay. Gotcha.

 

[Target Team Leader]

Per best practice, we are never allowed to type in any credit card numbers or debit card numbers manually. If they don't swipe, we have to ask them for a new form of tender.

By the way, those transactions do look shady. One way of finding out the name of the credit card, would be to ring up all of the guest items, press total, then make them or yourself swipe the card, press K8 for a "sign paper copy receipt", that receipt would have the name of the card, make sure that the name of that paper matches with their ID, if it doesn't, that would be a fraudulent transaction, and you should reject the transaction right away. If it does match, then you have to assist the guest and make them sign that paper copy for audit. Fraudsters can always alter the appearance of the card, but can't alter the information on the magnetic strip. I have seen instances where the name on the card doesn't match with that paper, and I reject the transaction right away. You can also check the back of the card, the back should show you the last four digits of the card, if those numbers doesn't match up with the last four digits on the front of the card, that means the card has been altered and you will have to reject the transaction.

I hope this helps.

 

[redeye58]

If we ever hit K8 for "sign paper copy", the transaction is completed regardless of signature.
The audit slip is retained but the trans goes thru unless it's rejected at source (ie: reported as stolen/disabled, over a fixed limit, etc).

 

[masterofalltrades]

Per best practice, we are never allowed to type in any credit card numbers or debit card numbers manually. If they don't swipe, we have to ask them for a new form of tender.

By the way, those transactions do look shady. One way of finding out the name of the credit card, would be to ring up all of the guest items, press total, then make them or yourself swipe the card, press K8 for a "sign paper copy receipt", that receipt would have the name of the card, make sure that the name of that paper matches with their ID, if it doesn't, that would be a fraudulent transaction, and you should reject the transaction right away. If it does match, then you have to assist the guest and make them sign that paper copy for audit. Fraudsters can always alter the appearance of the card, but can't alter the information on the magnetic strip. I have seen instances where the name on the card doesn't match with that paper, and I reject the transaction right away. You can also check the back of the card, the back should show you the last four digits of the card, if those numbers doesn't match up with the last four digits on the front of the card, that means the card has been altered and you will have to reject the transaction.

I hope this helps.

Great method , if your store allows it. In my store there would be 2 problems with this. 1. We are not suppossed to be asking for ids, it's against our contract vith visa, mc, amex and discoved. At my store thats a coaching. 2. When you press k8 and the signature slip prints that means you excepted the tender. Tge only way to back out of that is to do a return or post void the transaction. We used to these, until the fraudsters got smart and called corporate. Here is what we do now. As the guest swipes their card, take quick look at it too see if it says debit or credit. If it says credit and the pin screen comes up then just press the back button, and of couree this works vice versa. This way we don't violate any contracts and we can't get corporate called on us. These fraud people are not worth getting coached or put on a ca

 

[FrontEndFirecracker]

If you ever have a doubt about it, press k6 as soon as the guest walks away and flip your light for the GSA/GSTL to put their numbers in to do a receipt reprint. Tell them you're suspicious of the guest and that you wanted to pass the info along to AP.

Your AP will love you if it leads to them catching someone.

 

[NPC]

If you ever have a doubt about it, press k6 as soon as the guest walks away and flip your light for the GSA/GSTL to put their numbers in to do a receipt reprint. Tell them you're suspicious of the guest and that you wanted to pass the info along to AP.

Your AP will love you if it leads to them catching someone.

I like this method the best. I figure AP can't do much or call the cops without having a report of some kind of history of this activity anyway, right?

 

[Retail Girl]

Our ap doesn't do anything about credit card fraud, anyway. If we tell him he just had a fraudulent transaction, he just shrugs his shoulders and says he'll look it up if/when the police call after the victim files a police report, but until then he can't/won't do anything.

 

[HardlinesFour]

1.) The IDs are ALWAYS from out of state. The name will match the credit card, but the names with either be super long and complex, OR overly simplistic. The one I had today was "Joe Green."

The Drivers Licenses are probably fake. It's really, really easy to make Fake ID's now, and apparently the material to make them (including holograms) can cost as little as $10-12. More scary, is they'll actually scan, in POS.

There was a check fraud ring, in our district... that had amazing looking drivers licenses. There was no way you could tell the difference, and neither could cops, until the number was manually entered in (there system) and it came back invalid.

2.) The guest always purchases 2 Target gift cards, but never in the same transaction. Also, they don't go for the second gift card until they see the first transaction clears.

A lot of Credit Cards, apparently will work once or twice, when swiped far away from the card holder's billing address. The idea being that... they could be traveling, and forgot to give the card company travel plans.

However. If there large purchases, the card typically get's flagged. So when... you go to swipe it again, it'll decline. But that doesn't matter to the criminals, as long as it works once, for that one transaction, they've already got something of value.

3.) The high value of the gift cards. They're bought in pairs of ($500 and $900) or ($400 and $400) or ($1000, and $1000)

Yeah. Most guests, never buy a high value card. And when they do, they rarely buy more than one.

We once had this one lady. Who came in, around Christmas, saying she was buying all these $500 cards, for her employees. I didn't buy it for one second.

And the idiot actually left the cards, to the side of the swipe/pin pad terminal. So, I just grabbed them for a second, and looked at them. (She tried to yell at me, and I just said "merchants have a legal right to inspect a card, that's been attempted for payment")

These we're fully embossed, labeled BOA & Citi cards. I mean, the picture and holograms, and everything we're perfect on them. Problem was... every single one of them, had different names embossed on them. Some we're even for Men. So... it was pretty obvious, she wasn't the actual cardholder.

I just said, mam... legally, only the actual cardholder, can be present using their card. You can't use a card that doesn't have your name on it. However.. you can always call (insert bank name here) and asked to be added as a authorized user on there card.

With that said, I can't allow you to attempt a another transaction, inside our store. And I'm going to have to ask you to leave now.

So, she left. And... I made a point of sending out her photo to nearby stores. But... we never did see her again.

5.) The items they buy with the gift card. It's always greeting cards, and snacks from the front end.

Credit Card companies, don't like $505.95 or $254.95 amounts. Those are known fraud amounts, and are likely to flag the card. So throwing in extras, makes a different amount, less likely to trigger alerts, or alarms.

 

[HardlinesFour]

One little thing to watch out for...

If you see a "Greendot" card, or a "Visa/Mastercard" Gift Card (some of them say something like Vanilla) purchasing gift cards, there's a good chance it's Fraud.

As I was told... the numbers on those gift cards, aren't always raised. So.. they can be scratched off very easily, and embossed with the stolen card number, name and expiration. The CVV (Signature Panel code) will always be in-correct though, and easily detected if POS does a prompt for the CVV Code (the signature panel code).

Another trick, not well known about.

See those four digits below the card number. Visa & Mastercard (but not Amex or Discover) requires every credit/debit card in this country to have the the first four digits of the card, printed below the card number.

If these don't match, or the four digits aren't printed (on a Visa or Mastercard) the card is counterfeit. And keep in mind, this is one of the hardest things for criminals to fake.

And make sure that Gold Eagle or Two World Circle (Mastercard) moves, or changes when held. If it's just printed on the card, and is not a real hologram, it's fake.

 

[FlowChick]

http://www.myfoxtwincities.com/stor...rack-up-fraudulent-charges-in-the-twin-cities

 

[Hardlinesmaster]

One little thing to watch out for...

If you see a "Greendot" card, or a "Visa/Mastercard" Gift Card (some of them say something like Vanilla) purchasing gift cards, there's a good chance it's Fraud.

As I was told... the numbers on those gift cards, aren't always raised. So.. they can be scratched off very easily, and embossed with the stolen card number, name and expiration. The CVV (Signature Panel code) will always be in-correct though, and easily detected if POS does a prompt for the CVV Code (the signature panel code).

Another trick, not well known about.

See those four digits below the card number. Visa & Mastercard (but not Amex or Discover) requires every credit/debit card in this country to have the the first four digits of the card, printed below the card number.

If these don't match, or the four digits aren't printed (on a Visa or Mastercard) the card is counterfeit. And keep in mind, this is one of the hardest things for criminals to fake.

And make sure that Gold Eagle or Two World Circle (Mastercard) moves, or changes when held. If it's just printed on the card, and is not a real hologram, it's fake.

Here is a link about credit card prefixes:
http://www.thebreakroom.org/index.php?threads/how-to-read-credit-card-numbers.3165/#post-53005

 

[3LetterDevil]

We have people who try this at the pharmacy all the time. They must think since we aren't "regular" cashiers, we don't see many scammers and aren't as aware of what makes a fraudulent transaction. They are wrong, we bust them every time

 

[BlueSide]

I denied some shady "church goers" and "charity givers" because they wanted $10,000 worth of giftcards (Google Play, Steam, PSN etc.) My LOD accepted the purchase the first time a week ago, but apparantly they've been back 5 times since then. What type of profit could they even make off of these purchases though?

 

[Frosty]

Yes, this is definitely something you should let your asset protection people know about. Good eye though.