$7,000 in Walmart gift cards for $6,000
and
$7,000 in Menards gift cards for $6,000
I’m guessing it’s the same person, but there’s no way to know for sure. So, is it some kind of scam? Is there a way to fake gift cards? The ad even offers to meet at WalMart to prove the validity of the card.
So, if it’s not a scam, why would someone have that much money in a gift card? I’m guessing it will all just be WAG’s, so I put the question here instead of GQ.
FTR I have no intention of contacting the seller and am not interested in buying either - I’m just curious as to what’s going on.
Haven’t heard the ‘prove the validity’ angle, but when I worked at a big box bookstore we were told that there is a old scam where people steal unloaded gift cards (easy to do, they’re right out on the floor) and sell them on eBay as loaded. Ours even have ones with the dollar amount printed on them.
‘blank’ gift cards aren’t usable until activated by a store, so that may be the scam. Is this guy really willing to stand there while you validate all (70?) cards at a Walmart?
OTOH, my son’s school does a deal where we buy gift cards from them (at no discount, $100 == $100), but the school makes a very small percentage on the deal, like 2%, for hawking the cards. Maybe its something like that, but the 10% discount sounds unlikely.
Or its just straight robbery – he’ll meet you if you have $6000, which you will ‘donate’ to him in person. :smack:
Shrug, I got nothing else. I really don’t see a legit reason for someone to have $7k of cards and then be selling them for $6k. He can’t take them back to WM personally and just convert them back to cash?? Or don’t they do that? Couldn’t he buy $7k of merchandise and just return it?
No idea why someone would have them, but if he’s willing to go the store with you and have an employee verify all are loaded and no problems with them, I don’t see how it could be a scam.
The only time my credit card number has been stolen and used was twice when it was used to buy massive amounts of gift cards online from Amazon and some clothing company. Lucky for me, my CC company figured out this was fraudulent activity pretty quick and I got through it unscathed, but it has led me to believe that buying massive amounts of gift cards with stolen CC numbers is a common thing to do.
I saw something about someone selling large stacks of vouchers on eBay - it turned out they were vouchers from some online promotion - that anyone could print in any quantity they liked - because they were worth $10 when you spend $100, or something like that.
I’m starting to notice signs going up in stores saying that gift cards can’t be bought with credit cards.
(Which makes it a big pain for people used to buying anything of note on a CC.)
So I also lean towards fraudulently obtained gift cards. You never, ever want to do business with a fraudster. As was pointed out, they might just take your money and run. Then there is also the fact that the CC company might have tracked the gift card numbers down and when you try to next use them, the cops are called and now you have to prove you’re the not the one who got them in the first place. (Which is why the fraudster isn’t going to use them himself.)
Don’t most gift cards have a number in back where you can check to be sure that they have cash in them? Still, I’d be worried that they somehow had duplicates, and the moment you buy them, they call their cohort, who goes and spends the 7k before you can.
This right here seems to make the most sense to me. The guy probably doesn’t want to get caught with them and that’s why he’s selling them at a $1000 loss - which of course would be no loss to him.
Hmmmm.
If I thought he actually had the goods, I’d only use his services if he wanted to buy $2000 worth of stuff for me at Wal-Mart.
I’m 99% sure there’s some funny business involved, so I’d steer clear. Possession of stolen property is a crime here…
From my wife’s recent time spent working at Wal-mart - they commonly have problems with shoplifting and they lightly enforce such crimes. There have been recent news articles about this, I’m sure you could google them.
They also have a ridiculously lenient return policy. She has witnessed people returning dirty laundry for store credit. I’m not kidding. The individual stores are often poorly managed.
You could literally steal thousands of dollars worth of merchandise and return it for store credit.
Essentially what they are likely doing is money laundering of store credit from returned stolen merchandise.
Why not shoot a quick email to your local sheriff’s dept, bringing it to their attention? They might know something you don’t in re: illegal activity in the area.
This is my guess. I’ve read various online threads about customer service people talking about people consistently returning a lot of merchandise without a receipt. Even though they were pretty certain it was stolen, there was nothing they could do but give them gift cards for it. I always assumed they used the gift cards to buy something that would resale for a high price on eBay, e.g. iPods, but I guess selling the gift cards directly works too.
So I wouldn’t be surprised if the gift cards work, but I wouldn’t buy them.
This is my guess. I’m betting that you can use Walmart gift cards on their online store, right?
So, you go to the store, verify the cards, hand over the cash, and he calls his accomplice right after he walks out of the store, who submits a big order. Even if you do your shopping right then, the money’s gone by the time you get to the register. You might get Walmart’s cooperation to track where the items were delivered, or you might not.
If you really did want to go through with this, and had something big to buy at Walmart, tell him to come with you to the store, buy it, and then you’ll give him the money. Even that seems like a bad idea, because you might still get dinged for fraud, and if this guy isn’t on the level, he won’t agree to go through with this or, more likely, will suddenly have an emergency he has to attend to right before you were going to make the purchase. Can’t you just give him the money now?
With the “accomplice uses up cards online” angle, most gift cards I’ve seen recently (although this was only at Best Buy, Borders, etc) have a scratch-off area on the back with a PIN underneath. When you use the card online, you’re asked for the PIN. From my understanding, this is to block a scam from a few years ago. People would write down the gift card numbers at the store, put it back, wait for someone to buy the card (checking the balance online or over the phone), and spend it online. This was apparently especially prevalent around the holidays when people would be buying a lot of gift cards. I got an email warning about this scam before Christmas a few years ago that recommended taking cards from the back the stack.
If WalMart cards have the same thing, you should verify that the scratch-off portion is intact. Of course, there’s still the possibility a dedicated scammer could replace the scratch-off stuff after getting the PIN.
My gut feeling is that something is fishy about the whole thing (mainly from the $1000 markdown), but I suppose the seller could be legit.
Definately a possibility. My wife received a bonus this year (5 years with the company) in the form of gift cards from her chosen store ($1400 worth). Most people get them for Home Depot or Best Buy and use them on a home remodeling project or a big screen TV. But it was set up that you couldn’t get your bonus in cash.
Maybe the guy really needs the cash and is willing to sell them at a loss.