Glossary · Scams and fraud
Imposter scam
Imposter scam: An imposter scam is a fraud in which someone pretends to be a trusted party, such as a government agency, a utility, tech support, a relative, or the retailer's own corporate office, to extract payment or information. In a store it reaches both customers and staff.
An imposter scam is a fraud in which someone pretends to be a trusted party in order to extract payment or information. The caller claims to be a government agency, a utility, tech support, a relative in trouble, or the retailer’s corporate office. In a store it reaches customers at the register and staff on the service desk phone.
Why it matters in a store
Most gift card scams begin as imposter scams: the victim buys the cards because a caller pretending to be a tax office or a grandchild told them to. The second version is aimed at the store itself. A caller says they are from corporate, loss prevention, or the card processor, sounds busy and official, and asks an associate to read gift card numbers, run a refund, or change a setting on the register. The defense is the same on both sides of the counter: a corporate office never asks for card numbers over the phone, a refund never runs without a sale, and any request that cannot wait for the manager on duty is a request to hang up on.
How it shows up on the floor
- Register: a customer on the phone, loading cards, repeating a story about a fine, a bill, or a family emergency.
- Service desk: a call from “corporate” or “the alarm company” asking for card numbers, a safe code, or a refund to a card they read out.
- Receiving: a “vendor” calling to confirm a delivery and asking for account details or a door code.
Every one of these gets written up as an incident, even when nothing was lost.
Related terms and reading
The cashier side is in gift card scam training for cashiers. The phone-scam row aimed at the service desk appears in ORC awareness training for store associates. See also refund fraud and incident report, or browse the scams and fraud hub.