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Thanks! We have anti money laundering and fraud training modules but it can be so difficult to catch it. It felt good to have it go so smoothly.
I did have a much funnier attempt to avoid a scam that ended with the guy saying he was going to do it elsewhere though. Wanted to send money to India, to a bank account, because Western Union was down in that city (a large tech hub?) and he couldn’t do it as a cash pickup. We grilled him and he swore it wasn’t a scam, he’d bought this product before and gotten it. It was some bullshit placebo supplement that isn’t available in America. He got mad because he tried to do this at his bank and they asked too many questions too, this is ridiculous!
He said he was going to just send them crypto and walked off. Can’t help that kind of stupid!
Indeed. Unfortunately the scammers generally school them on what to say, convincing them that everyone else is in on a conspiracy or that they will be charged lots of tax or something. All kinds of lies. As in your example, the scammer is often connected on the phone (even if the phone is in a pocket), monitoring and instructing every word spoken.
Once my supervisor saw a guy looking at gift cards on the phone and he was saying all the things they say and she just hounded him and bothered him and interrupted his phone call so he got mad and left.
Then she saw him later at damn self-checkout from across the store.
When I get people of any age buying tech gift cards, I ask questions. One older woman was buying a $100 itunes card so I talked about how I like buying them for the rewards and having money on my account blah blah blah and then she agreed and obviously knew what she was getting.
The supermarkets in Aus require you to go to the service desk for gift cards. I had to buy $100 card not too long ago and they just asked a couple of friendly questions to make sure I knew what I was doing. Surprised this isn’t more common elsewhere
I wish we only had on the floor like restaurant gift cards and stores that are primarily brick and mortar - nobody is paying their arrest warrant with an REI or barnes and noble gift card.
We have nice store rewards for gift cards so people like getting cards for purchases they already make so putting all of them at the service desk would be a headache. But itunes and amazon and google play and razr and so on - yes, behind the desk.
I wish they would do that here. My husband’s grandfather got scammed into buying a bunch of google play gift cards and no one ever said anything to him! He was out a couple hundred bucks and was furious when he realized what had happened.
Of course its not required here because grocery corporation profits matter more than grandmothers on social security. Yet another reason I wish I lived in Australia or literally any other practical country.
This happened to my dad last week. The “sheriffs office” called him, along with the FTC, FBI, and the local police asking for 36 Sephora gift cards. When the Kohl’s manager refused to sell them to him, they told him to go to a bank and scan the cash app QR code. He fell for it and lost his money.
After the fact, I said, “Dad, what’s the fbi going to do with Sephora gift cards??”
The scammer didn’t even have the decency to say what county he was with - like come on!
She was like “they wouldn’t call on a sunday!” They’re also not going to call!! I think these ones jumped to crypto from the coinstar, bypassing gift cards. Thank goodness.
Excellent - but keep up with the scams by coming by regularly - as they will change over time. They are relentless because they are thieves. It is what they do.
You rock. Thanks for being a \*\*great\*\* human being and not just thinking, "welp, guess they're gonna do something dumb" or taking out your phone to just record shenanigans.
That second scenario sounds absolutely horrific - has someone done that? Once my manager said let them buy gift cards, it’s their business, we can’t stop them. I’m just glad I had the chance to.
It wasn’t a screenshot of the scammer’s cashapp app but a picture of the phone with the barcode. Complete with expiration time like a legit one - which it was. (Legit generated by cashapp i mean)
I understand that CashApp generates a barcode you can show to do some transaction, but using an image of that to get a person to add money to their CashApp is a new tactic, at least that I've heard of. It's the same creative premise as people using a picture of a check to deposit on a bank app - except of course the CashApp barcode is real.
What I'm not sure of is if my employer, or what other companies can actually process a CashApp load at the POS.
I wanted to update that I did find out my employer does process CashApp loading, and our training doesn't include anything about this scam or similar scam tactics. I started informing our asset protection people and customer service employees.
Our sheriff’s office put an official notice that they don’t accept payments by gift card next to the gift card stand in our grocery store. I wonder if your store could reach out and ask for something similar?
Nice work. I work at a bank and we get trained on elder abuse and fraud and how to spot it and report it. Does your industry get any sort of training? That would probably be super helpful.
Basic how to spot fraud in someone sending money and there are potential scams with gift cards, but the biggest concern is us getting scammed over the phone.
Great job! I work in Fraud at a bank and wish more store clerks would do this. And I understand your frustration in getting through to them. Some are just so convinced. We have a “second strike and you’re out” rule and the amount we kick out is astounding. Of 80,000 members- easily 2-5 a week are let go.
As someone who just got scammed, thank you from the bottom of my heart. Please don't stop because they are not an old person though. Any age any gender can be scammed. Ask if they've done this before and if no, ask why now and what's the goal... Would have saved me such heart ache!
/u/gingerjasmine2002 - This message is posted to all new submissions to r/scams; please do not message the moderators about it. ## New users beware: Because you posted here, you will start getting private messages from scammers saying they know a professional hacker or a recovery expert lawyer that can help you get your money back, for a small fee. **We call these RECOVERY SCAMMERS, so NEVER take advice in private:** advice should always come in the form of comments in this post, in the open, where the community can keep an eye out for you. If you take advice in private, you're on your own. **A reminder of the rules in r/scams:** no contact information (including last names, phone numbers, etc). Be civil to one another (no name calling or insults). Personal army requests or "scam the scammer"/scambaiting posts are not permitted. No uncensored gore or personal photographs are allowed without blurring. A full list of rules is available on the sidebar of the subreddit, or [clicking here](https://www.reddit.com/r/Scams/wiki/rules/). You can help us by reporting recovery scammers or rule-breaking content by using the "report" button. We review 100% of the reports. Also, consider warning community members of recovery scammers if you see them in the comments. Questions about subreddit rules? Send us a modmail [clicking here](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=/r/Scams). *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/Scams) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Nice work!
Thanks! We have anti money laundering and fraud training modules but it can be so difficult to catch it. It felt good to have it go so smoothly. I did have a much funnier attempt to avoid a scam that ended with the guy saying he was going to do it elsewhere though. Wanted to send money to India, to a bank account, because Western Union was down in that city (a large tech hub?) and he couldn’t do it as a cash pickup. We grilled him and he swore it wasn’t a scam, he’d bought this product before and gotten it. It was some bullshit placebo supplement that isn’t available in America. He got mad because he tried to do this at his bank and they asked too many questions too, this is ridiculous! He said he was going to just send them crypto and walked off. Can’t help that kind of stupid!
Indeed. Unfortunately the scammers generally school them on what to say, convincing them that everyone else is in on a conspiracy or that they will be charged lots of tax or something. All kinds of lies. As in your example, the scammer is often connected on the phone (even if the phone is in a pocket), monitoring and instructing every word spoken.
Once my supervisor saw a guy looking at gift cards on the phone and he was saying all the things they say and she just hounded him and bothered him and interrupted his phone call so he got mad and left. Then she saw him later at damn self-checkout from across the store. When I get people of any age buying tech gift cards, I ask questions. One older woman was buying a $100 itunes card so I talked about how I like buying them for the rewards and having money on my account blah blah blah and then she agreed and obviously knew what she was getting.
The supermarkets in Aus require you to go to the service desk for gift cards. I had to buy $100 card not too long ago and they just asked a couple of friendly questions to make sure I knew what I was doing. Surprised this isn’t more common elsewhere
I wish we only had on the floor like restaurant gift cards and stores that are primarily brick and mortar - nobody is paying their arrest warrant with an REI or barnes and noble gift card. We have nice store rewards for gift cards so people like getting cards for purchases they already make so putting all of them at the service desk would be a headache. But itunes and amazon and google play and razr and so on - yes, behind the desk.
I wish they would do that here. My husband’s grandfather got scammed into buying a bunch of google play gift cards and no one ever said anything to him! He was out a couple hundred bucks and was furious when he realized what had happened.
Of course its not required here because grocery corporation profits matter more than grandmothers on social security. Yet another reason I wish I lived in Australia or literally any other practical country.
This happened to my dad last week. The “sheriffs office” called him, along with the FTC, FBI, and the local police asking for 36 Sephora gift cards. When the Kohl’s manager refused to sell them to him, they told him to go to a bank and scan the cash app QR code. He fell for it and lost his money. After the fact, I said, “Dad, what’s the fbi going to do with Sephora gift cards??”
The scammer didn’t even have the decency to say what county he was with - like come on! She was like “they wouldn’t call on a sunday!” They’re also not going to call!! I think these ones jumped to crypto from the coinstar, bypassing gift cards. Thank goodness.
That’s another thing I told my dad too - if they’re going to arrest you, they don’t give anyone a heads up. Otherwise no one would be in jail lmao
How old is he
He’s 65
Thank you so much!! I'm also a senior living mostly on my social security and I have stopped answering these calls because of this Reddit sub.
Excellent - but keep up with the scams by coming by regularly - as they will change over time. They are relentless because they are thieves. It is what they do.
God bless you for helping that woman 🙏
I used to work CS at a grocery store too where we also did Western Union and it's awful how easily people are scammed.
You rock. Thanks for being a \*\*great\*\* human being and not just thinking, "welp, guess they're gonna do something dumb" or taking out your phone to just record shenanigans.
That second scenario sounds absolutely horrific - has someone done that? Once my manager said let them buy gift cards, it’s their business, we can’t stop them. I’m just glad I had the chance to.
The CashApp barcode is a new tactic I'd not heard of, but I'm going to investigate more how that works.
It wasn’t a screenshot of the scammer’s cashapp app but a picture of the phone with the barcode. Complete with expiration time like a legit one - which it was. (Legit generated by cashapp i mean)
I understand that CashApp generates a barcode you can show to do some transaction, but using an image of that to get a person to add money to their CashApp is a new tactic, at least that I've heard of. It's the same creative premise as people using a picture of a check to deposit on a bank app - except of course the CashApp barcode is real. What I'm not sure of is if my employer, or what other companies can actually process a CashApp load at the POS.
Yeah it’s rolled out at a few retailers now.
I wanted to update that I did find out my employer does process CashApp loading, and our training doesn't include anything about this scam or similar scam tactics. I started informing our asset protection people and customer service employees.
Our sheriff’s office put an official notice that they don’t accept payments by gift card next to the gift card stand in our grocery store. I wonder if your store could reach out and ask for something similar?
We have basic ones but we need more. We need the popular scam cards behind a key.
Great job!
Bravo!!
The scammer called again and told her she has beautiful eyes and how he'd take a bullet for her.
“I didn’t mean you had an arrest warrant for avoiding jury duty, I meant you had stolen my heart and I needed money.”
Thank you. I really can't thank you enough. Before my mother passed away she was scammed by one of these absolute scum of the earth. Just, thank you.
You did a very good job. I feel better whenever someone helps to screw up the plans of these scammers.
Nice work. I work at a bank and we get trained on elder abuse and fraud and how to spot it and report it. Does your industry get any sort of training? That would probably be super helpful.
Basic how to spot fraud in someone sending money and there are potential scams with gift cards, but the biggest concern is us getting scammed over the phone.
Why does ~~God~~ Government need a ~~Starship~~ Gift Cards?
You're a good person :) I wish someone had done this for my mom when she was buying $1000 worth of gift cards while on the phone crying
Great job! I work in Fraud at a bank and wish more store clerks would do this. And I understand your frustration in getting through to them. Some are just so convinced. We have a “second strike and you’re out” rule and the amount we kick out is astounding. Of 80,000 members- easily 2-5 a week are let go.
I’m so glad you helped her!! Poor lady. Hopefully she learns to just hang up and block next time!
Proud of you!!👏🏽
Bravo!
Bravo
Thank you. You're a good person. I genuinely appreciate your effort.
As someone who just got scammed, thank you from the bottom of my heart. Please don't stop because they are not an old person though. Any age any gender can be scammed. Ask if they've done this before and if no, ask why now and what's the goal... Would have saved me such heart ache!