New gift card scam targeting unsuspecting Ottawa customers
Posted Jan 31, 2019 09:02:00 PM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
A new scam involving gift cards is slowly emerging in Ottawa after a local woman reported a card she bought was drained of its cash before she was able to use it.
Gift cards are universally the same — each card has a number that needs to be peeled or scratched off so a cashier can attach money to it.
On 1310 NEWS' The Rick Gibbons Show, Ottawa Police Organized Fraud Unit Sgt. Jamie Ritchie explained that these numbers can be recorded by fraudsters.
“They'll grab a handful of them, they'll take them home or maybe just out to their car even, record a bunch of the information that they need off it to be able to access those cards online, and then put them back on the shelf,” he explained.
Once this happens, the sergeant said the criminals sit back and wait for an unsuspecting customer to purchase the cards.
“These guys are checking the cards periodically to see once they get activated,” said Ritchie. “Once they do get activated, they sell the codes or the access to them.”
Ritchie added, people need to be vigilant when deciding to purchase gift cards. Residents can do that by checking to see if a card has been tampered with before buying, choosing to buy cards near the cash register, and when picking from the rack, always choose the one further back.
