Completely emptied gift cards without the knowledge of Costco customers

Imagine you steal all the money from a gift card. This is what recently occurred for many Costco customers, who say they have lost hundreds of dollars. The company suspects that this is “unauthorized” access to cards, but sometimes sometimes refuses to reimburse the usurped sums.

Last June, Shelly Xu said he lost the $ 200 left on her purchasing card, Costco’s gift card. This payment method is very popular in Canada because the retailer does not accept Visa credit cards in his warehouses.

I checked my balance and I was shocked to see that there was nothing.

The resident of Perth, in East Ontario, says she spent hours on the phone and in person at her Costco Local store to try to solve the problem. But more than a month after the mysterious Disappearance of his money, his file is still not settled.

It’s simply unacceptablesays Ms. Xu. They provided me with no help. The only information I have found comes from online forums where other people face the same problem.

Dozens of Internet users have published on social networks and on the costco website that their purchasing card had also disappeared.

CBC/Radio-Canada interviewed five customers affected in British Columbia and Ontario: they say they have discovered in June or July that different sums-from $ 150 to $ 1,000-had been stolen from their electronic purchasing card.

Three of them say they have obtained a costco refund, after a process frustrating et laborious with its customer service.

Another customer claims that the retailer refused to reimburse her.

Shelly XU, for her part, is still waiting for a outcome to this case. If it was $ 2, I would probably have dropped, but $ 200, it’s a good amount of money that I am not ready to give upshe launches.

Potential fraud?

In a letter sent to three of the victims we interviewed, Costco explains thatAn underway survey indicates that a limited number of electronic gift cards may have been used by unauthorized persons.

The company also suspended the sale of its electronic purchase cards for a few weeks last month.

Costco Wholesale did not respond to our many requests for comments.

Daniel Tsai, professor of law at Canada West University of Vancouver, believes that Costco must be transparent, warn potential victims and provide a coordinated response to the customers concerned.

The right thing to do for Costco is to admit that there is a problem and not to let it risesays the expert.

Refused

The phenomenon of gift cards fraud is difficult to encrypt, but very real. In 2021, Canadians reported nearly $ 3.8 million in financial loss, according to the Canadian Retail Council.

Federal regulations require consumers to be reimbursed in many cases of fraud by credit card and debit. But when it comes to gift card scams, the victims are often left to themselves.

This is the case of Lisa Mannella, who lives in Niagara Falls, Ontario. She says that around $ 150 disappeared from her two purchasing cards at the beginning of June. Costco refused to reimburse her, citing the terms of her gift cards (new window)which stipulate that the retailer is not responsible for stolen cards.

That a large business does not even care, or does not even offer a help, it’s quite sadshe says.

In the case of Lisa Mannella, like that of the other four customers interviewed, Costco suggested that crooks may have accessed their gift cards by hacking their email account.

In the letter sent to the three reimbursed customers, the company recommends that they follow good practices and use solid passwords to protect their online accounts, including their emails.

A decoded sequencing?

Ritesh Kotak, lawyer and cybersecurity specialist, says it is possible that fraudsters have infiltrated customer email accounts.

But given the number of victims affected, he suspects that the crooks may have deciphered the sequencing of the bar codes of the purchasing cards, having reproduced them, then to use them in store.

At Costco, a personal identification number is required for online transactions, but not for purchases in its warehouses. Fraudsters can use this flaw to make purchaseshe said.

It is important to set up better mechanisms, better protection and appeals to compensate victims of these fraudsters.

If an investigation reveals that the purchasing card problem is not attributable to customers, the retailer should compensate all the victims affected, says the expert.

There should be some consistency so that people can recover their moneyhe said. The last thing to do is to victimize a person who is already a victim.

With information from Sophia Harris from CBC.