Admittedly the request seemed odd at the time, but wanting to be nice, Alex grabbed his house pass and headed for the office exit.
Alex, who did not want to give his real name, almost fell victim to a fraudster claiming to be the owner – and could lose hundreds of pounds.
Like most people in these situations, he didn’t immediately know what was wrong.
As a trainee lawyer, in the first year of his training contract, Alex wanted to make a good impression. So, when he received an email from a partner at his firm, he not only jumped at the chance to help, but also felt that there was little he could do but do so.
‘I was sitting at my desk on Monday,’ said Alex, ‘and I got an email in my inbox that looked like it was from a business partner.’
The email asked Alex to go out and run an errand for a friend.
‘As a coach, I thought: “well hell, if the manager is asking me to do something then I’d better do it”.’
Easy money: Employers recruit new employees, often posing as bosses to ask them to buy gift cards.
‘I was putting my coat on and going out and I got another email saying “Give me your phone number and I’ll call you back”, so I sent my number and he started to send a call.’
‘He was calling me saying “you’ve left again”, so I rushed out of the office and he asked me to go to the Apple Store to get a gift card.’
‘He said he was doing a show next week and wanted to give it as a prize, so I asked how much he wanted.’
Luckily, Alex didn’t make it to the Apple Store.
‘As soon as I left the office, alarm bells rang,’ he said.
‘The strange thing is that he didn’t really say how much he wanted, he just said to talk to him when I was there.’
‘In the beginning, because of the shock of being accused by the big boss, the adrenaline was like “oh my God, I can do better than this”.’
He said: ‘When I got out, it took a second or two for my brain to catch up and I thought “this is something out of the ordinary”.’
‘I’ve met this guy, and he’s nice. I’m not sure he would do something like that. Why did he ask me to get Apple gift cards? It’s different’
Alex added: ‘There were a lot of red flags, but even though I thought about it, I wasn’t sure it wasn’t him.’
Alex called the manager on his work phone, but he didn’t answer. Based on the speed of information, this seems to indicate that something is not right.
When a Microsoft Teams message was not returned, it was confirmed that he was not the owner at the other end of the text message chain.
‘I told IT,’ said Alex, ‘They didn’t like the truth, I think it’s happened before.’
Alex said to block the number and report the email address as a phishing email.
“They really knew how to create fake emails with the name of the managing partner,” he said.
‘So it looks like I’m getting an email from an executive, because it says his name. Not an internal address, but I thought he was sending emails from his personal account.’
In the end, the interviewer in question focused on Alex because he was a new interviewer and they were able to give him enough thought to not question the external origin of the email.
‘I haven’t worked there for a long time, now I know you don’t use a personal email to contact someone at work, but I thought “he’s the managing partner, he can what he wants”,’ Alex said.
‘Because of the power imbalance between us, I thought he should just do what he said.’
What are gift card scams?
These scams are just one many years there are always mobsters, but what sets them apart is their targeted nature.
It’s easy to spot a scam trying to get you home or auto insurance if you’re not home or driving a car, but it’s not so easy when the scammer has done their research. – especially when they have opportunities for vulnerability such as when the victim is new to their work.
Graham Cluley, cyber security analyst, This Is Money, said: ‘Gift card fraud is becoming increasingly common.
‘This means someone who claims to be your boss or relative will contact you and ask you to buy a gift card for them immediately and share the gift card number with them.’
Gift cards are difficult to find and return, and can be easily purchased by victims.
Once the victim buys the gift cards, the scammer asks them to hand over the gift card codes and then transfers the balance or sells it to other criminals.
Cluley said: ‘Fraudsters can use gift cards like wallets – for example, they can make in-app purchases from fake apps on Google’s app stores, or Apple, and deposit the gift card funds into the ‘correct’ bank account.
‘It’s not unusual to see used gift cards for sale on Ebay, Amazon or Steam.
‘The number of gift card fraud reports and losses has increased over the years. Retailers are encouraged to inform consumers about the risk of gift card fraud.
‘What needs to be done is to raise awareness of the problem and reiterate a very simple message: Gift cards are for gifts, not for payments. If your “boss” contacts you and asks you to buy a gift card immediately, don’t do it.’
How can you spot gift card fraud?
Hopefully after reading about Alex’s experience, anyone looking to purchase a gift card will think twice before doing so.
If you think someone is cheating on you, it’s a good idea to double-check the person you think is contacting you – whether it’s your boss or your sibling.
Instead of replying to them on the basis they contacted you, use a different way to contact them, preferably by calling them on a known number you belong to them, or by talking to them in person.
Some links in this article are affiliate links. If you click on them we may receive a small commission. That helps us fund This Is Money and keep it free to use. We do not write articles to promote products. We do not allow any commercial relationship to affect our privacy.
