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Shopping Centers Today -> September 2002
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SHOPPING CENTERS HIT BY GIFT CERTIFICATE SCAM
By Donna Mitchell
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| Scam artists used phony corporate checks to buy untraceable gift certificates at several malls. |
Call it a corporate twist on identity theft. Some scam artists this summer bought mall gift certificates at the CoolSprings Galleria, Franklin, Tenn., paying with fraudulent corporate checks. The perpetrators then redeemed the gift certificates for mall merchandise. Before the management at Chattanooga, Tenn.-based CBL & Associates Properties, owner of CoolSprings, caught on, the perpetrators had hit other malls in Nashville, Tenn.; Mobile, Ala.; and Cincinnati. In all, the REIT got taken for nearly $10,000, according to Mary Lynn Morse, CBL’s corporate manager of mall marketing.
Though mall officials believe one pair of perpetrators hit the malls in Tennessee, Morse said it is uncertain whether the two were part of an organized ring.
Mall certificates are attractive to thieves because, once procured, they cannot be traced.
After alerting law enforcement authorities, CBL issued warnings to other mall companies, though it is not known whether others have in fact been victimized. A number of major developers contacted by SCT said they had not been hit.
Officials at Mid-America Gift Certificate Co., the Louisville, Ky., company that supplies the certificates, offers the following pointers to help companies avoid such scams: Malls should establish a list of people authorized to issue corporate checks; verify the checks’ authenticity and the availability of funds; get the approval of mall management before cashing checks; and watch for smudge marks, misplaced perforations or other abnormalities that could signal forgery.
 | Current Issue December 2008 |