You get an email from your manager. Well, you presume it’s your manager - it’s not from their work email address. Or sometimes you get a text supposedly from them. They usually start by asking if you are busy, and when you reply, they tell you that they need gift cards. The reason might vary - it could be for a friend, or it could be for staff appreciation. They cannot get the gift cards themselves and they are in a meeting or similar.

In any case, they want you to buy some gift cards for them. And no, it can’t wait until they’re back in the office.

So you buy them, and at their request, send photos of the backs, once you’ve scratched them off if needed.

After that, you get in touch with your actual manager and it turns out that it was not them. The scammers now have the money off the gift cards, and you are in trouble.

Some variations of the scheme convince you to use the company card to buy the items. The manager may not be your direct manager, but a higher-up in the company that you’ve never met - they usually don’t target your direct supervisor but that has been known to happen.

In any case, I’m calling this common scam the Manager gift card scam.

How to protect yourself
Never ever buy anything without verifying either in person, over the phone, or through a trusted, work email address.

And if you do, do not send pictures of the cards to a random email address! Give them to the manager physically.