Today I hit my usual OD and there was this new manager giving me hard time buying more than 2 times of 2 cards and insisting on 1 time

He claimed there were several scams going on with these cards which I have never heard before. He gave me 2 examples

1) Scammer scratches off the card number and records it. Somehow I am not sure how he sets up an alert system to get notification by email whenever it is activated. I am not sure how it is possible but this is what he told me. Then some customer buys this scratched off card and as soon as it is activated the scammer is notified by email and somehow he uses this card online.

2) He said there was this customer trying to buy multiple GCs on a nonsale week. Manager got suspicious and engaged a conversation with the man and it turns out customer received an email from IRS and in the email it said you owe IRS this much and so you can only pay with a gift card. (I mean how stupid can you be?) and he was trying to pay with these cards he is buying. Manager informs the customer that he is not the only one scammed and this is a scam do not buy these cards.
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I have never heard of these before, but if you have any experiences or knowledge about scams please share with us.