Gift Cards at Supermarkets

[andye]

You are right that you need to do $88 (or less) at a time

 

[Blackswan]

A potential word of warning. Over the past few days I've been into three Perth Metro Coles stores to source $100 Coles Gift Mastercards. In all three, the remaining cardboard sleeves had been opened, and the card removed. At first I didn't think anything of it - now I'm starting to think perhaps someone is taking the cards, hoping someone will take the cardboard sleeve and activate the card?

 

[ermen]

A potential word of warning. Over the past few days I've been into three Perth Metro Coles stores to source $100 Coles Gift Mastercards. In all three, the remaining cardboard sleeves had been opened, and the card removed. At first I didn't think anything of it - now I'm starting to think perhaps someone is taking the cards, hoping someone will take the cardboard sleeve and activate the card?

Dont think you can activate a card without the physical card. You always need to scan the physical card's barcode (at woolies)... the cardboard barcode is a generic code that is same across all cards and doesnt scan at the checkout at all

 

[Blackswan]

Dont think you can activate a card without the physical card. You always need to scan the physical card's barcode (at woolies)... the cardboard barcode is a generic code that is same across all cards and doesnt scan at the checkout at all

At Coles, they only scan the cardboard barcode.

 

[andye]

A potential word of warning. Over the past few days I've been into three Perth Metro Coles stores to source $100 Coles Gift Mastercards. In all three, the remaining cardboard sleeves had been opened, and the card removed. At first I didn't think anything of it - now I'm starting to think perhaps someone is taking the cards, hoping someone will take the cardboard sleeve and activate the card?

Sneaky. I always remove the packaging at the till but more for convenience than fraud concerns.

 

[Franky]

Definitely something odd going on, two posters offering a different version to my untrained eye. Why would there be two barcodes in any event? Could even be staff setting things up perhaps?

 

[lovetravellingoz]

At Coles, they only scan the cardboard barcode.

I believe that this is incorrect. The barcode on the card is what activates the card (or at least it has on the various cards that I have activated). From memory the other barcode is not even unique (ie is just for that type of card rather than per card)

 

[Camz]

ive beeing paying my council rates, I paid approx 7 last night at a self serve, I called up aust post and asked which PO have self serve as to be honest I ve never seen one

I hope there is nt a surchage because Id be in trouble, i might call the council up on monday and ask them,
however there was NO mention of a surcharge at all,

the one that didnt go through was $1200 council rate and no matter how many times I tried it said to take it to the non self serve one, I have no idea why

and unfortunately unless im doing it wrong it was $88 at a time, I tried putting in 176, and but it kept on trying to debit 176 from the one card

regardless, I wish I had purchased more!

My rates and water didn't have a surcharge, just the other commercial bills (so hopefully you will be fine). Have you tried paying your $1200 council rate over the counter, some people have been having issues (employees saying you can't use eftpos GC's to pay bills), but this has not been my experience in my area, very helpful staff, happy to accept them. I have done all my bills over the counter, including a nearly $1500 bill (although I did start off with small bills first). Perhaps it's worth going in during a slow period, and ask really nicely, the worst they can do is say no, and if you mention you have paid other bills with the GC's that should assure them that it is possible.

i wonder if it is directing you to the counter due to the size of the bill (perhaps a maximum bill size for the self serve)?

 

[prozerran]

Incorrect. When I bought my cards I scanned the barcode on the physical card itself. When I tried to scan the cardboard code it said please can card code.

So no issues

A potential word of warning. Over the past few days I've been into three Perth Metro Coles stores to source $100 Coles Gift Mastercards. In all three, the remaining cardboard sleeves had been opened, and the card removed. At first I didn't think anything of it - now I'm starting to think perhaps someone is taking the cards, hoping someone will take the cardboard sleeve and activate the card?

 

[Happy Dude]

Self service requires interaction from staff. It's not automatic as the WISH cards have no value on them. Some staff might not care, others may be overzealous in their behaviour. Officially you can't do it. The realty is that it's common.

Thanks dude. TBH, I'm struggling to remember what can/can't/must/shouldn't be done, or otherwise, amongst the amount of information around gift/visa/v-pay/flybuys etc etc ad nauseum..... did someone mention a wiki for all this?

 

[Blackswan]

Incorrect. When I bought my cards I scanned the barcode on the physical card itself. When I tried to scan the cardboard code it said please can card code.

So no issues

We are talking about the purple Coles Prepaid Gift Cards? None of the physical cards I purchased have a barcode on them at all. The only barcode is on the cardboard pack.

 

[deejo77]

At Coles, they only scan the cardboard barcode.

Correct bar code is on cardboard package and card is sealed inside

 

[Dr Ralph]

Incorrect. When I bought my cards I scanned the barcode on the physical card itself. When I tried to scan the cardboard code it said please can card code.

So no issues

You seem confused about what Blackswan was discussing. Note that Blackswan specifically stated '$100 Coles Gift Mastercards' in their post.

So your claim that what Blackswan said is 'incorrect' is unlikely given the card is sealed inside the cardboard packaging for the Coles prepaid gift card MasterCard.

I acknowledge a different situation exists with things like JB HI fi gift cards, but the OP was never discussing these types of cards and I do not believe that their post was ambiguous in any way. In fact I applaud the OP in taking great care in their post to be very specific about which card they were discussing given the plethora of different cards available currently.

At Coles, they only scan the cardboard barcode.

This is definitely correct.

Dont think you can activate a card without the physical card. You always need to scan the physical card's barcode (at woolies)... the cardboard barcode is a generic code that is same across all cards and doesnt scan at the checkout at all

This is not correct in the context of the OP's post. Note that the OP was referring to '$100 Coles Gift Mastercards.' Note that the OP never mentioned Woolworths at all. You can definitely activate the Coles Prepaid GiftCard MasterCards without the card itself.

The OP provided a specific warning about the Coles Prepaid GiftCard MasterCards.



This situation as described by Blackswan is a potential fraud trap for those that had not realised it:

A potential word of warning. Over the past few days I've been into three Perth Metro Coles stores to source $100 Coles Gift Mastercards. In all three, the remaining cardboard sleeves had been opened, and the card removed. At first I didn't think anything of it - now I'm starting to think perhaps someone is taking the cards, hoping someone will take the cardboard sleeve and activate the card?

Once you scan the cardboard (bar code) the card is activated when the payment is processed. If someone has already taken the card from inside the cardboard you are in real trouble. Effectively you just paid for the card they already have in their possession.

I must say this is something that I realised a long time ago. I've always checked to make sure the card was inside the packaging before scanning them.

 

[Coops1]

I must say this is something that I realised a long time ago. I've always checked to make sure the card was inside the packaging before scanning them.

This....
good clarification by Dr Ralph to misleading posts and a great heads up by Blackswan. Thanks

 

[blueythecat]

I normally check for the card in the packaging, but I can see how it would be easy not to. Thanks for the heads on this, a good warning for those in the GC game.

 

[Camz]

Once you scan the cardboard (bar code) the card is activated when the payment is processed. If someone has already taken the card from inside the cardboard you are in real trouble. Effectively you just paid for the card they already have in their possession.

I must say this is something that I realised a long time ago. I've always checked to make sure the card was inside the packaging before scanning them.

Blackswan thanks for the heads up, and Dr Ralph thanks for confirming the situation.

Given the described situations, but not being directly familiar with these $100 Coles MCGC's I would probably be worried that someone might take it a step further. I am thinking of how many empty $88 gift cards I have right now. Is their a way to identify that the card in the cardboard is unused and is associated with the barcode. My concern is although the novice scammer may remove the card and hope you don't notice, the smarter scam would be to replace the card with a used card, and gluing the carton closed again.

Is there something that makes this scenario impossible? If not, perhaps it might be best to verify the card relates to the packaging as well as checking there is a card. I would hate to hear someone had bought a heap of cards and spent a few months using them, only to find some scammer had long ago used your card, and was now waiting for the next person to buy the pack sitting in Coles that has your used card in it.

I hope I'm missing something, otherwise it's a pretty silly setup having the barcode on the packaging, there isn't even much security that would prevent someone removing these from the store, doing a professional looking job at opening, replacing the new card with an old card, and sealing the packaging, before returning them to the store and waiting for them to be purchased.

 

[Franky]

Or as I thought of, perhaps a store employee (or accomplice thereof) removed and pocketed the card, and that the employee was then able to scan the cardboard folder at some time after the event.

 

[exceladdict]

Given the described situations, but not being directly familiar with these $100 Coles MCGC's I would probably be worried that someone might take it a step further. I am thinking of how many empty $88 gift cards I have right now. Is their a way to identify that the card in the cardboard is unused and is associated with the barcode. My concern is although the novice scammer may remove the card and hope you don't notice, the smarter scam would be to replace the card with a used card, and gluing the carton closed again.

Is there something that makes this scenario impossible?

As you're referring to the $88 cards I'll chip in my experience, which is that the perfect gift cards don't have a photocopied barcode on the back for activation, there's a cut slot showing the barcode from the actual card you'll use.

With those particular cards, I see little risk with an opened packet as long as the pin number has not been scratched off. Someone could create a duplicate card by taking the card number and expiry, but would need the pin number to extract any funds (and to check online to see if the card is active).

 

[Dr Ralph]

..... did someone mention a wiki for all this?

Given the diversity of offerings from multiple players and how frequently they change, I'm not of the view that a wiki would help or work well – especially for regular updating.

What could work well is:

1) If people were very clear about which card(s) they were referring to. Far too often there is a vague reference to an offering or a failure to reference an offering in a reply. Failing to be clear impacts everyone. It doesn't take more effort to be precise and would be appreciate by all.

2) A new thread for different gift card offerings. Perhaps even just a new thread for Woolworths gift card offerings and Coles gift card offerings could work as well. Given how frequently these things are offered and how different the terms of the offerings are I think this is worthwhile.

 

[prozerran]

Sorry Blackswan you are correct in regards to Coles Mastercards. Most other giftcards you scan the barcode on the back of the physical card