With Christmas now just days away, supermarkets are ramping up their efforts to protect customers from a long-standing scam at the checkout. One item in particular is triggering a security warning at self-serve checkouts, with customers also being urged to remain vigilant.
Gift cards have always been a popular option for shoppers, but over recent years they’ve become the centre of a widespread scam. Now, when purchasing gift cards at Coles, a warning message displays on the screen asking the buyer to “please use caution” when buying gift cards.
Coles told Yahoo News it’s all part of a push to keep more Aussies from falling victim to fraud.
“We take the protection of customers purchasing gift cards extremely seriously and continue to work closely with our suppliers on a range of initiatives designed to strengthen protections against tampering and fraudulent activity,” they said.
Customers can’t complete the sale without the help of a staff member. Source: Yahoo News Australia
“While we’re constantly enhancing security features, we have had various warnings and system controls in place for years.”
In a bid to alert customers to the scam, shoppers who purchase multiple gift cards will not be able to process the sale on a self-serve checkout without intervention from a staff member.
ScamWatch leaflets are also distributed to customers, urging them to always double check where a request for gift cards has come from.
What is the gift card scam?
An email or text will appear to come from someone you know, such as a family member or a work colleague, requesting high-priced gift cards.
The scammer will ask for the card number and PIN, giving them access to the value of the card and rendering the physical card useless.
The ploy has fooled thousands of Australians, with older generations particularly vulnerable.
Aussies have lost $260 million this year across a range of online shopping scams, with the National Anti-Scam Centre warning that they are on the rise.
Between January and September this year, Scamwatch received 159,319 scam reports with losses of $259.5 million.
The startling figures show a 16 per cent rise in the amount of money lost to scams compared to the same period last year.
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