Happy

Oh, I have my fair share of incompetent employees and paranoid employees. I just shrug it off. Be goal-oriented and you would find yourself become much more tolerant.

pier11

I never load cards at MC, only regular cashiers. Usually on the opposite sides registers. (Kiosk rarely works if existent.)

MC is for BP/MO. Don't need extra attention there.

zs58

No problem for me getting a MO this morning. Sounds like another enterprising WMT employee freelancing with the "rules"...

wcj

Pier 11-- watch for eagle eyes in CS. One Friday, I pushed my luck a bit and was requested to conduct all my financial transactions at one time at MC.

jasonvr

Well, for the first time in over 150 GCs totaling over 60k, I got hit by a scam. Went to go load my usual 4x500 at WM and one of the cards wouldn't work. I remembered this card as it felt a little odd when I took it out of the package, but didn't think much of it because it was a design I had never bought. After it didn't work, I took a very close look at it and found a very precise sticker had been placed over the entire lower portion of the back of the card, including the activation bard code At that point, I knew what had happened

I immediately called the number on the back (not on the sticker) and entered the card number into the automated system (Metabank) and it immediately told me the card was no longer active and hung up on me.... So I called back and hit the option to report the card stolen. Talked to a woman who said they could do nothing and to go back to the store with the receipt. Luckily, I am a pack rat and very organized and I had it. Every receipt (purchase and load) get coded with a 2 digit code and the card is marked with the same code (EQ in this case). Raced home, dug out the receipt and went back to the store. Talked to the manager and was told I have to call customer service, which I did from the store. Got thru to someone, but apparently I need to talk to the GC department and they are only open M-F 7-7

Talked more to the manager. Apparently, it's not the first time it has happened. He said that previously another manager noticed someone acting suspicious and quickly reviewed security camera footage. The guy had bought a bunch of cards into the store and placed them on the rack, then had gone back out to the car to get more and walked back in to put them on the rack as well. The manager quickly called the cops and the guy was arrested with hundreds of cards in his trunk! The manager looked at my card and tried a few things on it (scratching on the barcode, running his finger over it to feel the bumps, etc) and concluded it was the best scam he'd seen so far. Usually when he runs his fingers over it, he can tell it is fake and if you rub, the paper sticker starts to rub off. Neither occurred on this one. And the package was perfectly intact (I always check).

So, even with perfect diligence, you can still get scammed. And people wonder why I keep a spreadsheet, code every card and receipt, and save everything. That'll also teach me to get new designs. I usually go for the plain black or grey ones, this time I got yellow... The last time I get a different design of a card to mix things up it was a Celebrate MC and you can just look at the wiki for how well that went.

This scam is similar to one I read about in another thread, but more sophisticated:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/21481646-post407.html

Edit:
A little more info, I just figured out what the three digit code that was written in blue is on the front of the card - it's the real CVV for that physical card! I thought it was some sort of tracking code for the scammer.

Here are some pics. The black outs are done by me before posting the pics. The blue coding number on the front was obviously done by the scammer (can't believe I didn't catch that when I opened the package, but I had no reason to look at the front at all).

Gammachu

Thanks for sharing your experience and sorry you had to go through that. I'm guessing they took all the gift cards that guy placed on the rack off but missed a few? Kind of lame how we're playing Russian roulette with these gift cards wondering if we're gonna pick a good one or tampered one. All these gift card scam reports seem to only be in California. I make it a point to immediately go to Wal-Mart after buying gift cards to liquidate the cards because I don't wanna go through hoops with getting my money back. I wonder how long it'll take you to get your money back.

jasonvr

Yep, kinda sucks, but immediately loading wouldn't have helped. I think I would have gotten the same response out of Metabank and the store. I just would have found out about it sooner. Luckily I can afford the float. Not happy about it, but I can afford it which is important in this "business"

cyberkost

Jasonvr, thanks for sharing and being so detailed about it. You say the package was perfectly intact -- I just find that hard to believe. I assume this was the kind with a large rectangular window (almost as large as the card) with two corners cut at 45 degrees -- how can one pull a card out leaving a trace? I know I wouldn't be able to, even if I tried really hard. Also, was the card attached with those dots of rubber glue?

jasonvr

Completely intact. Manager said they are professionally resealing the packages which I assume means they are not using the traditional rip out areas to get at the cards. Probably some sort of slice into the side/edge to split the package and then re-glue afterwards. And yes, the little sticky dots were there as well. I have a specific way of opening the package to minimize my effort and that includes how to minimize the hassle of the dots.

Here is the type of packaging (not the actual packaging for this specific card);

cyberkost

Yeah, exactly the type of packaging I was thinking about. Can you tell now, that you know one was tampered with, how it was tampered with / what to look out for?

dogbyte

There's a thread about this on Fatwallet.

http://www.fatwallet.com/forums/finance/1290841/

jasonvr

I don't. Unfortunately, I actually cleaned up the house last weekend, so I don't have that specific package anymore.

Edit:
I might actually have an idea. There appears to be an easy location to split the packaging on the bottom with a good knife. From there, I think you might be able to open it like a book with the "book binding" on the right side as you look at the back. From there you would have perfect access to the card and then you could reseal with some glue around all edges. My guess is that it would make all edges feel a little thicker than a normal package, but it might not be easily detectable. I'm going to buy another card later today, so I'm gonna give it a shot

jasonvr

Yep, this issue is definitely discussed in that thread, but gets muddled because there are other issues as well - apparently cloned cards and erased mag stripes. So Cal is apparently the hot spot for this....

Edit:

OK, tried slitting along the bottom edge, and I think that's how it was accomplished. However, I noticed something on this latest card that would have alerted me to a problem with the scam card. Look above the barcode and just below that letters FDIC. You can see the silver hologram sticking out. That hologram was NOT present on the scam card. It's the one thing you can't replicate on the sticker, so they just don't try. I can't believe I didn't recognize it. It's one of those things you don't even recognize or think about. I also noticed that the signature panel is slightly raised, so you can run your fingernail across it (after the activation cover is removed) and you should be able to tell if it is genuine. Gonna have to be a lot more careful from now on (and more paranoid).

brandon032586

Yeah, except that never happened. WM never gave me back the refund. Thankfully, and I don't really know how/why meta bank did this, I put in a dispute and they gave me back to funds. They claimed that card needed to be reissued, so I had them send me a new one for free with my name on it! After a month and a half, I got the $500 back

Now that I know they can get me the cards in 5 business days with my name on them, I am considering calling more often to get personalized cards. My Walmart says that as long as the card has my name on it, they will accept it for MO/BB loads.

pinguy

Thanks for the excellent post on this scam