Scammers use barcode sticker overlays to redirect gift card loads to their accounts

A newer variant of in-store gift card fraud involves scammers placing a fraudulent barcode sticker over the real barcode on an unactivated gift card. When the cashier scans the card at checkout, the payment is loaded onto the scammer's card rather than the card the customer is holding. The customer walks away with a card that was never actually funded. This attack is nearly undetectable at point of sale: the barcode looks normal, the transaction processes without errors, and neither the cashier nor the customer has reason to suspect anything. The victim only discovers the problem when they or the gift recipient tries to use the card and finds a zero balance. Unlike traditional card draining (which requires the scammer to monitor and race to spend first), the barcode overlay gives the scammer 100% of the loaded value with zero timing pressure. This persists because retail barcode scanning systems have no mechanism to validate that a scanned barcode corresponds to the physical card's embossed or printed account number. The card number on the receipt could be checked against the card in hand, but almost no consumer does this, and cashiers are not trained to verify it.