Quote:
Originally Posted by rubicon
REDCART: We purchase these gas cards because of the skimmer scams found at various pumps around the area. So how did some get/copy your gift card and use it 6 days after your purchase?
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We also found the 6 day window between purchase and use to be too coincidental, which raises several possibilities. Publix said when they run their Shell promotions, they ship a supply of new cards to each store and don't rely upon the gift cards that are already on hand. Publix also said the new Shell cards are packaged so that you have to destroy the package to remove the card. Our card was in one of these new tamper-proof packages. If I had to guess or speculate, I'd say Shell is the most obvious point of failure. Either someone has discovered the algorithms for assigning gift card numbers, and then someone simply checks the value on the account periodically, or has been able to hack their computer system for this info. I also believe the employee who processed the transaction in Miami also had to be part of the fraud.
We'll continue to purchase Shell gift cards whenever Publix runs their promotions but if it ever happened a second time that would be the limit for us.