‘Tis the season for scamming. In California, there’s a new scam trend involving gift cards that’s seeing serious growth. In what they called “Operation Bad Elf,” the Sacramento Sheriff’s Office found what it said was a “shocking number of gift cards that had been tampered with.” Cops say the scumbags take the card from the shelf, replace the barcode on the back, and then put it back. At checkout, the money that’s supposed to go onto the card ends up going to the barcode the scammer provided. So, the scammer gets the card credit, and the customer gets a card that’s worth nothing. Detective David Derouen says the potential loss is in the neighborhood of $2.86 million in his sting alone. It’s recommended that you inspect the gift card before taking it to the register…if anything even remotely looks tampered with, pick up a new one. For even more safety, make it easy and buy online and email the gift to the recipient.
Source: KTLA