Laws and regulations · Scams and fraud
Maryland Gift Card Scams Prevention Act: what SB 760 requires
| Jurisdiction | Maryland |
|---|---|
| Citation | Senate Bill 760 (Chapter 463), Gift Card Scams Prevention Act |
| Status | The General Assembly bill page shows the bill as approved by the Governor and chaptered; the fiscal and policy note describes the training duty. |
| Official text | https://mgaleg.maryland.gov/2024RS/fnotes/bil_0000/sb0760.pdf |
Maryland’s Gift Card Scams Prevention Act, SB 760, requires merchants that sell gift cards to train the employees who sell them. The fiscal note states the merchant must provide training to all employees whose duties regularly include the sale of open- or closed-loop gift cards to consumers on how to identify and respond to gift card fraud (Maryland General Assembly). The duty is training, and the audience is the register.
Who it covers
The training duty attaches to a merchant that displays gift cards for sale and to the employees whose duties regularly include selling them. “Regularly” is the operative word. A cashier who rings gift cards every shift is in; a warehouse associate who never touches the rack is not the target. A customer service desk that handles activations and reloads is in. Both open-loop cards, the network-branded cards usable anywhere, and closed-loop cards, the store’s own, are named in the fiscal note’s description of the training duty (Maryland General Assembly).
What it requires
The training has a stated purpose: how to identify and respond to gift card fraud (Maryland General Assembly). Identify and respond are separate skills, and the second matters more.
Identify means the cashier recognizes the pattern: a customer on the phone through the whole transaction, a large or repeated gift card purchase, a story about a fine, a grandchild, or a tax bill, a shopper reading card numbers aloud. Respond means the cashier has something to do with that recognition that does not depend on winning an argument. A script, a pause, a manager call, and a store rule on when to decline the sale are what “respond” looks like in practice. The mechanics of that script are laid out in gift card scam awareness training for cashiers.
| Requirement | Who | When |
|---|---|---|
| Train employees whose duties regularly include selling gift cards | Merchant that displays gift cards for sale | Before those employees sell gift cards, and for each new hire into the role |
| Cover how to identify gift card fraud | Merchant, through the training content | Each training session |
| Cover how to respond to gift card fraud | Merchant, with a store script and escalation rule | Each training session |
| Keep a record of who was trained and when | Store manager | After every session |
The “when” column is store practice. The bill text sets the legal timing, and a merchant should read it directly.
What it does not require
The training provision does not tell a cashier to refuse a sale, detain a customer, or call the police on a shopper. It asks the merchant to train. What the cashier does with the training is the store’s policy decision, and that policy should make clear that the cashier never argues with a scam victim, never accuses, and never leaves the register to intervene. The act includes provisions beyond the training duty. Read the bill text for the full scope and take questions on it to counsel rather than to a summary page.
What a store should do this week
- List every employee whose regular duties include gift card sales, including customer service and self-checkout attendants.
- Write the store’s response rule: what the cashier says, when they call a manager, and who can decline a sale.
- Run a short training session that covers identify and respond, and keep a sign-in sheet.
- Add gift card scam cues to the next huddle card using the huddle talking points format.
- Put a scam warning at the gift card rack and at the register, built as one behavior, one image, one line.
- Log every declined or paused gift card sale so the pattern is visible at the store level.
How it fits the rest of the program
Maryland has moved gift card scam training from a good idea to a statutory duty. The training the law asks for is the same training a store would want anyway, because the cashier is the last person who can interrupt a scam before the money leaves. For related laws and the fraud patterns behind them, see the scams and fraud topic hub.