Gift Cards Scam Story- FT

13th September 2025
Posted in Fraud Awareness, Fraud recovery experts, FT, Legal Help

Richardson Hartley Law was asked by the FT newspaper to comment on a growing problem of gift card scams for new workers.

Scammers contact new recruits and demand that they make transaction immediately.

The so-called spear phishing or boss scams are designed to panic workers into buying gift cards when they are unaware of company protocols and who they should be answering to.

It is difficult for us to recover gift card purchases under any APP reimbursement scheme.

A senior solicitor at our firm explained to the FT: “The issue is that technically, even though you then send the gift card code to the scammer, you get what you pay for.

“You have that value, and then you transferred it onwards . . . there’s no breach of contract, if you like, in terms of the purchase of the gift card. And therefore they wouldn’t [be obliged to] refund it on that basis.”

Read the full story: Spear phishing: the ‘boss scam’ that targets new starters