Threat Alert: What You Need to Know

• Scammers are tampering with physical gift cards in retail store locations. In these attacks, scammers place barcode stickers on top of the legitimate gift card barcode.
• The barcode stickers redirect any funds a customer purchases for the intended gift card to an attacker-controlled account instead.

What You Should Do (at Work and at Home)

• Inspect physical gift cards before purchase. Feel the back of gift cards, along the barcode, for any possible raises. A difference in texture or elevation on the card could signal the presence of a sticker or tampering with the gift card.
• Check for any mismatches between the gift card and what the point-of-sale (PoS) system shows after scanning the barcode. While the stickers may be easy to miss, the PoS system will display the name of where the purchased funds will be loaded.
• Consider purchasing digitally. To completely avoid the risk, purchase digital gift cards which cannot be tampered with in this way.