Google Play Card and a fake email scam

Calahonda52

Got an email from my boss this early am, on foot of which I bought two by 50 euro G play cards, at which point she called me to tell me it was a scam.
I bought them on my cc.
They are perfect, I didn't scratch off to access the codes as the next email wanted.
Looks like google don't refund them under any circumstances?

Any thoughts?

Xterminator

It is your personal responsibility is not to fall for obvious scams. I think it unlikely you will fall for the next one.

Not too expensive a lesson.

Atlantic Dawn

Call your CC company to do a chargeback.

ohnonotgmail

your boss sent you an email asking you to buy 2 €50 Google Play gift cards? Did you not find that unusual?

Spocker

Whats the scam? Did you buy direct from Google or what?

Wuff Wuff

Atlantic Dawn wrote: »

Call your CC company to do a chargeback.

on what grounds? they received the goods they purchased?

Calahonda52

Thanks for all the very unhelpful replies.
Great posts.:D:D:D:D

I am not at a real loss as I will be able to unload them or even spend them on G play.
My question was about Googles policy of no refund, end of.

The J Stands for Jay

Could you share the text of the email so other people can be aware of what not to fall for?

Xterminator

and include the codes of the cards

28064212

Calahonda52 wrote: »

My question was about Googles policy of no refund, end of.

Google don't sell giftcards. Where did you buy them? It's the retailer's refund policy that matters

Mongfinder General

What country are you in?

Calahonda52

28064212 wrote: »

Google don't sell giftcards. Where did you buy them? It's the retailer's refund policy that matters

Thank you.

Its printed on the receipt from Tesco that they don't offer refunds on gift cards.
The logic is that, as the money goes to Google, less whatever commission they take, they don't actually have the money to refund.
If you look on the web, this is a worldwide issue with Google and gift card scams and their no refund issue.

The scam was quite clever in the sense that they inserted the false return email address into the company email account and had an exact replica of my boss's email footer.

irelandrover

Whats the scam? Someone forged an email from your boss to make you buy google gift cards in Tesco?

Xterminator

on a serious note though , who do you think should take the hit on this one? who is most culpable?


your boss
you
tesco
google

28064212

Calahonda52 wrote: »

Its printed on the receipt from Tesco that they don't offer refunds on gift cards.

End of story then. This is a change of mind scenario, you're entirely at the mercy of the retailer's good-will

Calahonda52 wrote: »

The logic is that, as the money goes to Google, less whatever commission they take, they don't actually have the money to refund.

Where are you getting that reasoning from? If they did allow refunds, they'd just give you back your €50, and still have the card to sell again. Zero difference to any other refund. It's much more likely that they don't do refunds on giftcards because it would be difficult to verify that they haven't already been used (the scratch-off section appearing intact is not a guarantee). They don't do refunds on underwear either: if "your boss" had emailed you asking you to buy €50 worth of boxers, you'd be in the same position.

irelandrover wrote: »

Whats the scam? Someone forged an email from your boss to make you buy google gift cards in Tesco?

The scam usually involves a follow-up email asking the scammee to scratch off the cards and send the codes

Calahonda52

Xterminator wrote: »

on a serious note though , who do you think should take the hit on this one? who is most culpable?


your boss
you
tesco
google

The one you left out are our IT company who ......:)


I am not at a loss as such, just another asset class in my portfolio.:D
They have a 5 year life so I will find someone who will take them.

Tesco are clear in their policy
Google is clear also.
My boss will foot the bill, no problem if I ask her.
Did I fall for it, yes

I feel like I'm losing my mind here. What's the scam? That you can't get a refund for something which the retailer has zero way of checking whether or not it has been used? How in the blue fcuk is that a scam?

It's always been the case with anything of that nature that you cannot get your money back. What's to stop someone from buying it, copying the details, getting a refund, and then using the information to redeem the card? Surely you've purchased phone credit from a shop before?

It seems like you were the fool for falling for some poxy fake email from your boss and are now trying to cover your tracks by claiming a "no returns" policy is a scam. And yet, we've already established that your scam detection capabilities are less than perfect.

You fcuked up, parted with your own hard-earned for no good reason, and you are claiming that you're being scammed. Have you no sense of your own personal responsibility

Spocker

I see it now, it's the "buy the card for your boss/friend/relative and email them the code scam"

Email requests
You might get an email from someone you know asking you to perform a “task” or a “favor” to purchase Google Play gift cards and email them the redemption codes. While the sender’s name and email address may look like a family member, friend, or colleague, this is actually a sophisticated phishing scam disguised as a trustworthy request from someone you know. Do not buy gift cards and respond with the redemption codes. If you want to confirm whether or not the request is legitimate, do not respond directly to the email sender or click on any links in their email. Instead, contact the person requesting the gift codes face to face or via an alternative communication method (e.g., the phone number you regularly use to call/text them).

So, the real issue is that the boss's email account got spoofed, time to change passwords!

Calahonda52

Spocker wrote: »

So, the real issue is that the boss's email account got spoofed, time to change passwords!

Not the bosses email, the enterprise mail server

L1011

Deleted User wrote: »

I feel like I'm losing my mind here. What's the scam?

The scammer will have asked for the codes. They will then use them to buy in-app purchases or similar from an app they control; or sell the codes online at a 'discount'.

Google/Apple don't care as they make money off it.

Cabaal

Atlantic Dawn wrote: »

Call your CC company to do a chargeback.

Why would the bank process the chargeback?

The OP purchased the gift cards, they still have the gift cards. Google have done nothing wrong.

Of course if the OP disclosed the claim codes to a third party and the Gift Cards have been claimed and used then it is 100% the OP's error and again not Google's fault.

People should ALWAYS treat gift cards like cash, if you loose it or give them away then you are out of luck.

Xterminator

L1011 wrote: »

The scammer will have asked for the codes. They will then use them to buy in-app purchases or similar from an app they control; or sell the codes online at a 'discount'.

Google/Apple don't care as they make money off it.

That is almost as disgraceful as when the bank makes a profit from scammers using bank accounts!!

28064212

Calahonda52 wrote: »

Not the bosses email, the enterprise mail server

Neither. It's incredibly easy to send an email that appears to be from a specific address, and there doesn't need to have been any vulnerability on either the recipient's or supposed sender's side.

If there is a technological weakness, it's that the IT department could ensure that any email purporting to be from an internal company address is actually sent from the internal email server. However, that is not always a practical solution, as many companies have legitimate reasons to allow it.

User education is the only real prevention against attacks like these

28064212

Deleted User wrote: »

I feel like I'm losing my mind here. What's the scam? That you can't get a refund for something which the retailer has zero way of checking whether or not it has been used? How in the blue fcuk is that a scam?

It's always been the case with anything of that nature that you cannot get your money back. What's to stop someone from buying it, copying the details, getting a refund, and then using the information to redeem the card? Surely you've purchased phone credit from a shop before?

It seems like you were the fool for falling for some poxy fake email from your boss and are now trying to cover your tracks by claiming a "no returns" policy is a scam. And yet, we've already established that your scam detection capabilities are less than perfect.

You fcuked up, parted with your own hard-earned for no good reason, and you are claiming that you're being scammed. Have you no sense of your own personal responsibility

In fairness, I don't think the OP has claimed that the no-refunds policy is a scam, only that the original email was. They were questioning whether there was some way around the policy, or some other option they could take to mitigate the effect of being scammed

28064212

28064212 wrote: »

In fairness, I don't think the OP has claimed that the no-refunds policy is a scam, only that the original email was. They were questioning whether there was some way around the policy, or some other option they could take to mitigate the effect of being scammed

That's what I thought too, initially, but the follow up posts don't seem to indicate that is the case. They (the op) seem to be suggesting the opposite, and their gripe is with Google "scamming" them instead of accepting the fact they were dumb enough to fall for an actual scam.

L1011

Atlantic Dawn wrote: »

Call your CC company to do a chargeback.

Absolutely zero chance of a bank processing a chargeback in this case.

Calahonda52

L1011 wrote: »

Absolutely zero chance of a bank processing a chargeback in this case.

Agreed

I had a successful charge back when I bought something off a fake website.

Calahonda52

28064212 wrote: »

In fairness, I don't think the OP has claimed that the no-refunds policy is a scam, only that the original email was. They were questioning whether there was some way around the policy, or some other option they could take to mitigate the effect of being scammed

Thanks.
I have edited the title