Kevin Wilson was thrilled when, as part of a Black Friday promotional deal, he got two Walmart gift cards totalling $700.
But when he went to a Walmart near his home in Surrey, B.C., this month to use his cards, Wilson was dismayed to discover they’d been drained — leaving him with a balance of just 27 cents.
According to transaction records, one card’s cash was spent at a Walmart in Richmond, B.C., and the other, at a Walmart in Mississauga, Ont. — far across the country.
“I was in shock. The cards hadn’t left my possession,” said Wilson. He added that the cards showed no signs of being tampered with.
“It was just like utter disbelief. How is this possible?”
Toronto-based cybersecurity analyst Ritesh Kotak says gift cards are attractive to fraudsters because they’re not registered in anyone’s name, and they’re easily accessible in stores. (Doug Husby/CBC)
Toronto-based cybersecurity analyst Ritesh Kotak says gift cards are attractive to fraudsters because they’re not registered in anyone’s name, and they’re easily accessible in stores.
“Unfortunately, people are getting scammed,” he said. “These fraudsters are becoming even more sneaky and sophisticated.”
The Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre said that between January. to September, it had received more than 1,000 complaints from victims of gift and prepaid card fraud, totalling upward of $3 million in losses.
Kotak said those numbers will likely rise over the holidays, because the cards are a popular gift item.
“People are going to be victimized, but they’re not going to find out until after the holiday season when they try to use those gift cards.”
‘The light bulb went off’
After he got scammed, Wilson took it upon himself to investigate.
He said when he received his gift cards, he was so pleased that he briefly posted a photo of them on Facebook. The bar codes were visible in the photo, but Wilson didn’t think that was a problem, because the security code on each card was hidden.
But after doing some sleuthing, Wilson realized that his photo may have enabled fraudsters to access his cards. That’s because a shopper can make purchases at self-checkout with a Walmart gift card simply by scanning its bar code — or a photo of the bar code.
“The light bulb went off,” said Wilson. “There was a Eureka moment and I’m like, ‘No way, it couldn’t be that easy.'”
CBC News was able to make a purchase at Walmart’s self-checkout by loading a Walmart gift card with cash and then scanning a photo of its barcode. The security code on the back of the card was not required. (Sophia Harris/CBC)
As an experiment, CBC News loaded $5 on a Walmart gift card and attempted to purchase a $3 bag of walnuts at self-checkout by scanning a photo of the card’s bar code. The transaction went through, and the receipt showed the card’s remaining balance.
Walmart’s gift cards are worthless until customers load them with cash. Once loaded, the company requires shoppers to input a card’s hidden security code when using it to make purchases online, but not at self-checkout.
Wilson says a fraudster could easily take photos of a bunch of the cards’ bar codes at Walmart, and then try to buy goods with them at self-checkout at a later date — in the hopes the cards have since been loaded with cash.
“It’s sort of, like, egregious,” he said. “All the cards in Walmart are on bulk display. The bar codes are in plain sight.”
Scammers finding new ways to steal your gift card money
Scammers are finding new ways to deplete money from gift cards ahead of the holidays. Victims of these scams share their stories as cautionary tales. while experts offer tips for how to protect yourself from fraud.
Walmart Canada spokesperson Stephanie Fusco told CBC News that the retailer is investigating Wilson’s case and will reimburse him the missing $700 if it determines he’s a victim of fraud.
Fusco said Walmart has implemented measures to help protect customers from gift card scams, including signs in stores warning them not to share the information on their cards.
Another gift card scam
Nichelle Laus of Mississauga, Ont., almost fell for a different gift card scam. The former Ontario police officer posted her story on social media as a warning to others.
“It drives me crazy to have people victimized this way, especially during the holiday,” said Laus.
Her saga began in October when she tried to buy a $50 Winners gift card at Shoppers Drug Mart. She said the cashier felt the back of the card and informed Laus a fraudster had placed a sticker of another gift card’s bar code overtop of the Winners card’s bar code.
Nichelle Laus discovered this gift card at Shoppers Drug Mart where the barcode on the back had been covered up by a sticker with a different barcode. (Sue Goodspeed/CBC)
Laus said the cashier then scanned the new bar code, which showed it belonged to an Esso gift card.
She said the cashier explained that if Laus had loaded $50 onto the Winners card, it would have wound up instead on a fraudster’s Esso card.
“The cashier was telling me it’s a big problem,” said Laus. “Had she not noticed — and I wouldn’t have noticed, I would have literally paid 50 bucks, gone away with my card, and it would literally be of no value.”
Earlier this month, Laus encountered the same scam when selecting a $100 Playstation gift card at another Shoppers. This time, it turned out the bar code placed over the original one belonged to a card for the LCBO, Ontario’s liquor stores.
“Had the transaction gone through, I would have loaded $100 on [the LCBO card],” she said.
Loblaw, which owns Shoppers, told CBC News gift card scams are widespread and that its employees are trained to recognize the fraud, including bar code tampering.
Cybersecurity analyst Kotak said that for a few hundred dollars, scammers can easily acquire the necessary software, printer and labels to replicate bar codes.
“If you’re putting these labels on hundreds of gift cards across the country, you’ll be able to recoup your investment very quickly,” he said.
To protect people from gift card fraud, both Kotak and Laus recommend retailers keep the cards behind the counter, so fraudsters can’t tamper with them.
TOKYO (AP) — Japanese technology group SoftBank swung back to profitability in the July-September quarter, boosted by positive results in its Vision Fund investments.
Tokyo-based SoftBank Group Corp. reported Tuesday a fiscal second quarter profit of nearly 1.18 trillion yen ($7.7 billion), compared with a 931 billion yen loss in the year-earlier period.
Quarterly sales edged up about 6% to nearly 1.77 trillion yen ($11.5 billion).
SoftBank credited income from royalties and licensing related to its holdings in Arm, a computer chip-designing company, whose business spans smartphones, data centers, networking equipment, automotive, consumer electronic devices, and AI applications.
The results were also helped by the absence of losses related to SoftBank’s investment in office-space sharing venture WeWork, which hit the previous fiscal year.
WeWork, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2023, emerged from Chapter 11 in June.
SoftBank has benefitted in recent months from rising share prices in some investment, such as U.S.-based e-commerce company Coupang, Chinese mobility provider DiDi Global and Bytedance, the Chinese developer of TikTok.
SoftBank’s financial results tend to swing wildly, partly because of its sprawling investment portfolio that includes search engine Yahoo, Chinese retailer Alibaba, and artificial intelligence company Nvidia.
SoftBank makes investments in a variety of companies that it groups together in a series of Vision Funds.
The company’s founder, Masayoshi Son, is a pioneer in technology investment in Japan. SoftBank Group does not give earnings forecasts.
Shopify Inc. executives brushed off concerns that incoming U.S. President Donald Trump will be a major detriment to many of the company’s merchants.
“There’s nothing in what we’ve heard from Trump, nor would there have been anything from (Democratic candidate) Kamala (Harris), which we think impacts the overall state of new business formation and entrepreneurship,” Shopify’s chief financial officer Jeff Hoffmeister told analysts on a call Tuesday.
“We still feel really good about all the merchants out there, all the entrepreneurs that want to start new businesses and that’s obviously not going to change with the administration.”
Hoffmeister’s comments come a week after Trump, a Republican businessman, trounced Harris in an election that will soon return him to the Oval Office.
On the campaign trail, he threatened to impose tariffs of 60 per cent on imports from China and roughly 10 per cent to 20 per cent on goods from all other countries.
If the president-elect makes good on the promise, many worry the cost of operating will soar for companies, including customers of Shopify, which sells e-commerce software to small businesses but also brands as big as Kylie Cosmetics and Victoria’s Secret.
These merchants may feel they have no choice but to pass on the increases to customers, perhaps sparking more inflation.
If Trump’s tariffs do come to fruition, Shopify’s president Harley Finkelstein pointed out China is “not a huge area” for Shopify.
However, “we can’t anticipate what every presidential administration is going to do,” he cautioned.
He likened the uncertainty facing the business community to the COVID-19 pandemic where Shopify had to help companies migrate online.
“Our job is no matter what comes the way of our merchants, we provide them with tools and service and support for them to navigate it really well,” he said.
Finkelstein was questioned about the forthcoming U.S. leadership change on a call meant to delve into Shopify’s latest earnings, which sent shares soaring 27 per cent to $158.63 shortly after Tuesday’s market open.
The Ottawa-based company, which keeps its books in U.S. dollars, reported US$828 million in net income for its third quarter, up from US$718 million in the same quarter last year, as its revenue rose 26 per cent.
Revenue for the period ended Sept. 30 totalled US$2.16 billion, up from US$1.71 billion a year earlier.
Subscription solutions revenue reached US$610 million, up from US$486 million in the same quarter last year.
Merchant solutions revenue amounted to US$1.55 billion, up from US$1.23 billion.
Shopify’s net income excluding the impact of equity investments totalled US$344 million for the quarter, up from US$173 million in the same quarter last year.
Daniel Chan, a TD Cowen analyst, said the results show Shopify has a leadership position in the e-commerce world and “a continued ability to gain market share.”
In its outlook for its fourth quarter of 2024, the company said it expects revenue to grow at a mid-to-high-twenties percentage rate on a year-over-year basis.
“Q4 guidance suggests Shopify will finish the year strong, with better-than-expected revenue growth and operating margin,” Chan pointed out in a note to investors.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 12, 2024.
TORONTO – RioCan Real Estate Investment Trust says it has cut almost 10 per cent of its staff as it deals with a slowdown in the condo market and overall pushes for greater efficiency.
The company says the cuts, which amount to around 60 employees based on its last annual filing, will mean about $9 million in restructuring charges and should translate to about $8 million in annualized cash savings.
The job cuts come as RioCan and others scale back condo development plans as the market softens, but chief executive Jonathan Gitlin says the reductions were from a companywide efficiency effort.
RioCan says it doesn’t plan to start any new construction of mixed-use properties this year and well into 2025 as it adjusts to the shifting market demand.
The company reported a net income of $96.9 million in the third quarter, up from a loss of $73.5 million last year, as it saw a $159 million boost from a favourable change in the fair value of investment properties.
RioCan reported what it says is a record-breaking 97.8 per cent occupancy rate in the quarter including retail committed occupancy of 98.6 per cent.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 12, 2024.
