NEW YORK—Gift card fraud is on the rise, and employees seem to be the biggest offenders, says an article in the New York Times.
The 2008 National Retail Security Survey estimates employee fraud involving gift cards is $36 billion a year, or 1.51 percent of retail sales. And, employee theft and shoplifting have been rising, with $15.5 billion in 2008.
They report most of the thieves are young sales clerks who do fake refunds of merchandise and then, with the amount refunded, use their registers to electronically fill gift cards, which they take. Or sometimes when shoppers buy gift cards, cashiers give them blank cards and keep the cards that have the money.
They say the most common type of employee theft does not involve giftcards, but is called “sweethearting,” where cashiers fail to ring up or scan goods that friends or relatives present at the register.