ECONOMY & WORK
MONEY 101
NEWS
PERSONAL FINANCE
NET WORTH
About Us Contact Us Privacy Policy Terms of Use DMCA Opt-out of personalized ads
© Copyright 2023 Market Realist. Market Realist is a registered trademark. All Rights Reserved. People may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice.
MARKETREALIST.COM / ECONOMY & WORK

Woman tries to buy gift cards worth $200 — but an alert cashier sensed what was happening and saved her

She saw that the woman taking instructions from someone on the phone and noticed something was wrong.
PUBLISHED DEC 12, 2024
Screenshot showing the cashier Amy (Image source: East Idaho News/YouTube)
Screenshot showing the cashier Amy (Image source: East Idaho News/YouTube)

After credit card fraud and email scams were exposed, criminals are using innovative ways to lure unsuspecting victims towards dubious schemes. With the holiday season in full swing, the Federal Trade Commission has warned that gift cards are one of the most common forms of payment being exploited for scams. Americans lose hundreds of millions of dollars every year to scammers who dupe them into transferring gift cards. Thanks to Amy, a vigilant cashier at a Fred Meyer store, a customer was saved from a gift card scam. 



 

How the Elaborate Scam Works

Speaking to East Idaho News, Amy shared that she noticed the woman wandering around the store for about two hours. She said that the customer was on her phone the entire time, and when she first brought a $45 gift card to the counter, she didn't think much of it.

"I thought it could be for a kid or something," Amy said. She thought the customer was taking instructions from someone to get guidance on what to buy. However, when the woman brought more gift cards worth $200, Amy suspected something was wrong.

Screenshot showing Amy speaking to East Idaho news (Image source: YouTube/East Idaho News)
Screenshot showing Amy speaking to East Idaho news (Image source: YouTube/East Idaho News)

Amy requested the woman not to make the purchase telling her that it could be a scam. “At first she didn’t want to believe it. She said that she’d been on the phone with this person for almost three hours," Amy said. "And it was kind of scary," she added. The cashier then decided to speak to the scammer herself. Once she took the phone and questioned the caller, she realized that the caller wasn't giving her any straight answers. The scammer soon went quiet as Amy was sure that it was a scam and hung up the phone.

Representative image of a woman using her phone (Image by Jan Vašek from Pixabay)
Representative image of a woman using her phone (Image by Jan Vašek from Pixabay)

Amy then informed the shopper that it was a scam and she should not entertain any more calls from the person. The woman then contacted the Idaho Falls Police Department and praised Amy's actions, while revealing that the caller claimed to be a PayPal representative. The scammer told her that her account had overdrawn money and she needed to settle it immediately. The scammer directed her to drive to her nearest store and buy a Google Play gift to pay the debt.

The interviewer of the Feel Good Fridays show noted that the cashier Amy could have just made the sale and not bothered to help the woman, but she chose to do the right thing and stopped a scam. Amy then revealed that such incidents have happened in the past, which is why she knew how to identify a scam.



 

She said that some cashiers are only concerned with making a sale but her conscience urged her to intervene and help. She further hoped that the story would help raise awareness about such scams.

Rise of Gift Card Scams

The Federal Trade Commission received 50,000 reports of gift card fraud in 2022 leading to $228 million in losses.  Further through September 2023, the Better Business Bureau and FTC reported a 50% increase in cases of gift card scams accounting for $147 million in losses, as per McCafee.



 

The favorite cards targeted by scammers include well-known brands such as Walmart, Target, Apple, Google, Amazon, Best Buy, and the Steam gaming platform. Criminals often pose as representatives of utility companies, the government, lottery officials, tech support, or even family members using deep fake technology to dupe victims.

They employ high-pressure tactics to trick victims into making quick transactions. Thus, as a general rule, consumers are advised not to use gift cards as modes of payment.

MORE ON MARKET REALIST
The guest was clearly not expecting such a high valuation for something she treated as a toy.
10 hours ago
She knew what to do long before the game reached its most definitive moment and won big.
11 hours ago
He had been a fan of the show for many years and had fulfilled his dream of being on it.
13 hours ago
The guest had no idea about the lamps or their history and was fascinated by the story.
1 day ago
Things like this rarely see the light of day, especially in a case that has been kept such a secret.
1 day ago
Rick Harrison made a desperate attempt to get the historic machine but things didn't go well.
1 day ago
The artist might not have been as popular as some of his contemporaries, but his work is valuable.
1 day ago
This wasn't the first time that Harrison was proven wrong by an expert he himself call
2 days ago
Few people would have guessed that Kevin O'Leary had such a fun side to him.
2 days ago
The four-time Mr. Olympia winner left some of the sharks awestruck with his physique.
2 days ago
The entrepreneur was a charming woman who the sharks liked almost immediately.
2 days ago
Ice creams and frozen desserts aren't the same thing, and brands have to advertise them accordingly.
2 days ago
The contestant had no expectations at all coming into the show even on Christmas.
3 days ago
Vanna White and Ryan Seacrest introduced the 'bragging rights' edition for die-hard viewers.
3 days ago
Harrison didn't think much of the helicopter at first since it was badly mangled.
4 days ago
The shark wanted to work with entrepreneurs who would never take no for an answer in business.
4 days ago
The object in question was a letter written from the battlefield by legendary poet Walt Whitman.
4 days ago
Turns out that the expert had an original wanted poster for Booth, and Rick was interested in it.
4 days ago
Vanna White seemed worried when she learned what the former host had done.
5 days ago
Chumlee went out to handle the whole deal by himself and committed another blunder.
5 days ago