WARNING!!! - Home depot gift card SCAM

[kmk]

I recently (about 10 days ago) purchased home depot gift cards (worth $490) from a local person (through CL) for 80% of the face value. He asked me to verify the balance on the cards while he was waiting outside the home depot. [ When I met him at the store, he said he doesn't like to do this business at the HD premise. So, I didn't think much of it].

The HD employee scanned the cards and wrote the balance on the
back of the cards. The balance were correct so I paid him and went
inside the store to the power tools section. This person showed up
there few mins later while I was browsing the clearance section. I saw him so he chatted with me briefly. I left the store few mins later.

Few days later, I went to the store to use the cards. When the HD employee scanned the cards, the balance were zero!! I couldn't believe it and asked the employee to scan again. The balance was still zero! So, immediately I called the store manager and told him about the situation. He took photo copies of the cards and said HD has loss prevention department and they will look into it. Next day, I filed a fraud complaint with local police. The officer who was assigned to the case said don't buy from CL. We have been dealing with this type of scam every day and most of the time they get away.

Since this person chatted with me in the tools section and since I knew the time frame, HD was able to get the video. Couple of days ago, the officer said HD knows this person by name and he is a repeated offender and has done time for credit card scam. Thats the status as of now.

I've no idea how this person was able to use the cards without having them in hand? It beats me! HD is not telling me either!

[cabinetman]

Maybe the guy did one of those "switcheroos" on you. Did you ever give him the card back after you checked the balance? Or, maybe he went to the store with just the card number and told them he lost his card, and they went ahead on just the number.

[Tequila]

He also could have bought the gift cards with a CC, given them to you, then gone to the cash register with his receipt. If he told HD that he lost the gift cards, they would probably refund the balance to his credit card.

[kmk]

These were actually store credit cards (the ones you get if you return a product without a receipt).

Agree that he might have reported them as lost and got new cards but that requires you show a receipt, id etc. I suppose he might have used fake id too...

[dkerfoot]

Acronym?

What is CL?

Why CL stands for Craig's List (answering own question...)

[tedkitch]

Here is what I know about certain types of gift card scams.
1. Never purchase a gift card from anyone at a reduced rate if you don't know them personally
2. The method that most people use to perpetrate this type of fraud, is to scratch off the back of the card and write down the pin number and then use the card online for purchases.
3. When purchasing a card for anyone, make sure that nothing is scratched off the back of the card.

I've been in Home Depot to purchase a gift card and every card in a particular rack has had the back of it scratched off.

[kmk]

The problem is store credit cards do not have a PIN. When I buy gift cards I make sure the PIN is not exposed. There were couple of red flags in my case but some how none caught my attention. First, he always (couple of times) called me. Never gave me his number. Second,he waited outside while I was verifying the balance. After the incident occurred, I looked at my incoming calls for that day. There were no records of his calls. (Caller id blocked).

Police informed me that there was at least one another person who got scammed by the same person.

[mater]

A guy walked up to me in Lowes one time offering a card at about 75% its balance. He said he returned something but needed the cash. He showed me a receipt and told me the same thing to take the card and get it verified and I told he I wasn't interested. As I was handing him back the card the store manager walked up and took the card from my hand and grabbed him by the arm and they started to walk away. They didn't go far before he bolted and ran out the door. A little later I saw the store manager and asked him what was going on. He said there were two of them trying to run a scam. He wouldn't go into details but said he saw him talking to me on the store monitor.

[LarryG]

That he waited outside while you got the balances verified may suggest he didn't want to go in for fear of being recognized. Yet you encountered him in the tools section a few minutes later. Seems kinda contradictory. This makes me wonder about an in-store accomplice, and whether he came inside to either pay off the accomplice, or to get the accomplice to do something to zero out the cards.

Did you select the employee who did the scanning at random; or were you in any way maneuvered toward that certain person? Also, were you able to see the readout on the scanner, to verify it matched what was written onto the cards?

[Hellrazor]

He could have used them online after he sold them to you.

[JTimmons]

There were no records of his calls. (Caller id blocked).

There's ways around that!

Just because he has choosen a feature on his service to block his number, doesn't mean no one gets to see it, just the person on the other end.

Both his and your provider will have a record of the call hitting their network for billing.

You may not know his number, but you do know yours and along with a approx time and date the call was made your provider can search all calls placed to your number.

The hard part is getting the records which requires a subpoena.

Most people running scams like this use pre-paid cell service, there's no information required from the user, thus no way to track him down. The caller ID block feature isn't really found with these services as it requires payment at a retail outlet or credit card somewhere which leaves a paper trail.

It's a strong possibility that you got yourself a real "smart" criminal here who called you on his landline or cell phone.

Of course, the next question is how bad does the detective want to catch him.

[kmk]

Well, when he called me he said that he would wait the outside garden center. When I was at store, I had to wait in the line (garden center cashier) to get the cards scanned and I did see the readout monitor.

By the way, I don't think you can use home depot gift/store credit cards online. Only Lowes accept their cards online.

[Daryl]

I have seen hacked machines to copy the magnetic info on the back of the card and then "print" it onto a new card, he probably picked up a blank card from the display to put the info on.

[Zenaca]

Dont suppose he passed a magnet over the pocket where you had the cards while walking to or from you to "erase" the card? I know in the stores they warn you not to place CCs next to the thingy in the counter that deactivates the security things, could work the same! Just a thought.

Bud

[scorrpio]

Ok, I happen to have a Home Depot right in the basement of my office building (a DEADLY thing for my wallet), so I thought I was losing it, and had to go and check.

I was right - while *some* gift cards have this small scratch-off area (not sure what it conceals), MOST cards I saw on the stand there have NO PIN. Just the barcode. And if you are using auto-checkout, all you have to do is scan it. Means if you photocopy the card, you can scan the bar code on the copy.

Looks like the guy handed you the cards, took your cash, and immediately went to grab an expensive power tool, and pay by scanning the barcodes copied off the cards he gave you. The tool he can either keep, or sell off via CL or ebay.

Here's a funny thought: if someone tries to sell cards to you, decide on a purchase, and instead of asking the clerk to check the cards, grab that tool you wanted and BUY it using those cards. Walk out, cheerfully smile at the guy, show him your new toy, tell him the cards sure worked, and here's his 80%. I bet his expression will be priceless.

P.S. You people now owe me $25.