Beware Of Phony Credit Card Scam
The bad guys have found yet another way to steal using credit cards as their tool of choice, but in this case they are not credit cards but gift cards. Scammers and thieves are using Visa gift cards and passing them off as Visa credit cards. It is a rather simplistic, but dare I say clever con.
The criminals use names and numbers from stolen credit cards and affix them, along with an expiration date, to gift cards. When store clerks swipe the cards at the register nothing happens because the cards do not have the magnetic strip that carries the cardholders account information.
The store clerks will then assume that there is some sort of bug in the card reader and manually enter the credit card number on the face of the card and voila, the transaction is approved.
Legitimate credit cards have raised numbers and lettering for security purposes. These phony cards do not have raised letters and digits and that should send a red flag to the store clerk. But alas, many either are completely oblivious to what should be obvious or they just don’t care enough to be vigilant.
The fact of the matter is that stores must educate their employees when they become aware of such schemes in order to prevent fraud. A legitimate card should have no problem passing through the card reader. And they all have raised engraving on them.
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