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 who has cancer, 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 fact, this scam may impersonate any kind of leader in an organization, such as a pastor.

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

How to protect yourself

• Never buy gift cards without being able to reach the requesting person by phone or video call and verifying they are the requester. If you can’t verify, don’t buy the cards.
• People who legit want gift cards do not ask you to scratch them off and take a picture. They want you to give them the gift card and they don’t want you to scratch the back.
• Nowadays, even people in meetings can take a moment to buy eGift Cards on their phone. They don’t need an underling they barely know to buy cards for them.

This type of scammer targets people who want to do a good deed for someone. Just remember - never ever send a picture of a scratched-off gift card to anyone.