Pinole police send warning about new gift card scam

Criminals will literally do anything but work an honest job

The fact police told the entire scheme; means its already widespread and out of control.

Stores just need to start putting gift cards in locked cases, it’s that simple

I was a victim of this last year. Stopped buying gift cards.

Put the cards behind the counter

Cash as a gift is better than a card.

What a shitty world we live in where people actually do these scams!

How is it not the stores responsibility to sell you cards that haven't been tampered with? Why does it always fall on the consumer?

They’re doing everything but getting a damn job.

Or retailers should just keep cards behind the cash registers or in locked cases. They should not leave them exposed for crime and up to the consumer to take the loss.

I’m so sick of these scammers!! If they are smart enough to think up and pull off these scams then they are smart enough to work an honest job!!

Don’t buy gift cards. Just give cash to your loved ones.

You would think that someone with this kind of intelligence WOULD HAVE A DAMN JOB! Not scamming innocent people.

Moral of the story...DO NOT BUY GIFT CARDS! I saw a guy doing this in Walmart years ago. He would take the whole rack and scan the cards somehow and then return them to the shelf.

Very clever! Criminals spend so much time trying to get money. They can make money by being employed!

This scam is not new... i knew about this scam at least 7 years ago when I worked as a cashier at a major grocery store in the Midwest. I would go out of my way to warn my customers about this scam! And I would go out of my way to alert store security if I noticed a person spending too much time around the gift cards or if they grabbed a handful of cards and walked away with them!!! It's really sad when a person chooses stealing in lieu of a full time job.

I was actually scammed at issuer of the gift card. Host at a restaurant directed me to the bar (that should have been an immediate flag). It was one of those buy $50, get $10 free. I bought 2 $25 cards. Bar tender gave me the cards, purchase and gift receipts. She specifically pointed out the $10 card which I placed in a different pocket. Went home to place gift cards in Xmas envelopes when I noticed gift receipt for $25 didn't match. It matched the one I put my other pocket. I thought easy mistake. A few weeks later, I went to restaurant to use $10 gift card, and there was no money on the card. I showed my receipts to manager. He fixed it. Bar tender had given herself a $10 tip from that card, and she was going to have me give the empty card to my friend 😡

Just lock up the gift cards so they can't be manipulated.

Back to the good old days… cold hard cash in the envelope. 😅

Happened to me with Vanilla Visa gift card. The card company asked for private information before they would address the problem, and even then, they didn't guarantee they could give a refund. It's BS, I didn't want to provide my personal info.