We at B&J Bookkeeping and Taxes love helping our clients avoid a variety of scams. Tons of them are out there that target your business, home, phone number, and in this case, your friend’s email. Below we will show you how to avoid this gift card scam.
1. What is This Gift Card Scam?
I recently received an email from a client I hadn’t heard from in years saying he needed something urgent. I actually get emails like that all the time. However, I have never gotten an email with this content. It went like this:
How are you? i need a favor from you.
I’ve been trying to purchase a $400 Amazon E-Gift card by email, but it says they are having issues charging my card. I contacted my bank and they told me it would take a couple of days to get it sorted. I intend to buy it for my Niece whose birthday is today. Can you purchase it from your end for me, Please kindly have it sent to your attached Amazon email address , so that Amazon won’t get it locked and think that its a third party trying to steal from your amazon account because this things has happened to me before as i tried sending it to a third party. So just kindly purchase the card for me and have it sent to your e-mail then forward it to me immediately as soon as u receive it, i’ll then forward it to her myself she’ll get it in minutes.
Awaits your swift response
2. How to Spot the Gift Card Scam
There are many red flags present in this email:
- First of all, the email arrived at 6:30 am in the morning, which is unusual for most clients.
- The sender (and most senders) take the time to write “Hi Mike” or something on the intro line.
- The insane number of mistakes! Spacing, capitalization, etc.
- No American uses “awaits your swift response.”
- It also involved anything with a gift card.
3. How to Avoid this and Other Gift Card Scams
Gift cards are one of the main ways scammers get paid. They are transferrable across the globe, and they hold their value pretty well. The most common type of gift card used in this scam is iTunes, however Amazon and many others are used as well.
If I actually suspected this was a valid email and wanted to help, I would contact my client directly to confirm. I would also recommend any number of fixes that didn’t involve clicking on an suspicious email, answering it, or doing anything other than reporting it to my email provider. What actually happened is my client’s email was hacked. This email was likely sent to his entire contact list. He needs to reset his email’s password and send out an email telling his contact list to not respond to the fraudulent email.
Avoid Small Business Payroll Services Fraud in Houston
Finally, feel free to contact us for to learn more on how we can help you avoid these types of scam and other fraud. It can end up costing you big. We proudly serve businesses in Houston and the surrounding areas who need bookkeeping and payroll services.