BRU gift card scam.....be careful!

casper26

DH gave me a $500 gift card to BRU in May.  I knew I wasn't going to use it immediately and just put the card IN MY WALLET.  Went in today, went to the register with $300 worth of merchandise.  When the cashier scanned my card she said there was a balance of .76 cents on the card.  Naturally I was pissed.  So the store manager made a few phone calls...supposidly the card was purchased in NYC (which is correct) a few days later swiped in Middletown, NY and on the SAME DAY swiped in Las Vegas, NV!!!  Keep in mind, the card never left my wallet!  So after the store mgr found this out she stopped treating me like I was lying about never using the card and didn't treat me like I was trying to scam them out of $300+ and changed her tune.

DH called AMEX (he bought the gift card w/it) and by the end of the call was credited back the $500, AMEX will deal with BRU for the investigation and fraud.

Just be careful - DH also googled it and it seems BRU/TRU has had this scam happening since 2008.  So I guess my tip is if you buy a card over $100, buy it w/your credit card (AMEX if possible) and according to the store Mgr, keep your original receipt b/c that has the FULL gift card number on it.  Either shred it or keep it b/c someone can also scam you that way.

Holly88

That is awful! I always hear about gift card nightmares with them. I am wondering about an e-gift card we got. DH's grandparents sent us one via e-mail. I hope someone can't use that one!

MrsBalletStar05

Someone else posted about this, and I just don't get it - how are these scammers able to do this? It's so weird. 

WishLuckyStar

I've heard that people write down the numbers to blank gift cards and try them randomly to see if they have value on them. But the numbers would have to be used via online rather than swiped in a store so I don't know in this case. So aggravating!