These scammers need to burn in hell

I give props to this young woman you're a hero.❤

This employee is a savior

God bless you, Sophia and the staff at Safeway. Thank you for looking after our elderly.❤

Sophia is a real angle, great job

Literally dealing with this today with my mom. We need to talk about this more and openly to protect our vulnerable elderly population. I am so glad some people are taking action.

I’m touched and grateful for the training the employees receive. It’s nice to know they care.

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Something like this happened to my grandma about five or so years ago with the scammer saying that my older brother was being held by authorities in some other country. The scammer knew my brothers name and said he needs like $5,000 or so to get get him out. My grandma said I need to speak to my financial advisor which was her son, my dad. She called my dad and asked where my brother was and my dad said he's sitting right next to me. So glad my grandma still had the smarts not to fall for this.

Damn, Sophia is really pretty. Kudos to her for recognizing the situation and for being so helpful. We need more people like her.

this happened to my 84 y/o mother about 4 yrs ago but she caught on quick. She had a phone call saying your Grandson is in Jail and needs so $$ for bail, My mom responded I DONT HAVE ANY GRANDSONS and the caller abruptly hung up

Give this Safeway employee a raise!

I don't understand in todays time how people don't understand a scam by now. Bless her heart, we need to have something to educate people on this.

Honestly, whenever an elderly person comes into a store and tries to buy hundreds and hundreds of dollars worth of gift cards it should immediately set off a bunch of red flags. Ideally all supermarket employees should be trained specifically to spot potential victims of scams like this.

Sophia is beautiful in more ways than one. God bless her.

Thank you to all who are being prepared to help people who are being scammed and don’t realize it or what to do.🙏❤️

She saved the lady’s life.

Kudos to this employee! Well done 👏 and thank you

A cashier at Walgreens and I helped stop an elderly lady from buying 1,000 dollars worth of ITunes cards to help get her grandson out of jail. We gently encouraged her to call her son and make sure grandson was ok....which he was. It was a scam and she was terrified for her grandson, thinking he was in jail. We both talked to her son who promised to monitor her accts for scammers. She was very grateful that her grandson was ok.....and that we stepped in to help her.

They need bigger warnings signs at the gift card sections , and put a 24 hr hold on gift cards

Great job and great customer service!! 🎉🎉🎉🎉 This is a true patriot. God bless her for still respecting the elderly. 🙏

Wonderful cashier and lead cashier at this location are angels to the customers.

Great job. Some of these scams are so far-fetched that its hard to believe anyone would fall for them, but the scammers just play the numbers until they can hook someone. Terrific this young woman and her associates stepped in and helped. Unfortunately the scammers will just continue on until they get another hit. Just complete low-lifes.

why do the employees with minimum wage have to do the job that government should be doing?

There’s this older man who always comes in my store and buys hundreds of dollars worth of eBay gift cards... I never wanted to be nosey, but I’m definitely asking him next time what he buys them for. Especially since we’ve got a bit of a cashier/costumer friendship now.

It's bad enough they're scamming people but it's so much worse that it's old people that usually fall for it.

If anyone called and said that they have a warrant out for my arrest and told me the only way they wont arrest me was gift cards I'll tell them to arrest me. My exact words would be "yeah, go ahead, arrest me. I'll do the time. I need a vacation from my life anyways. It's tough being me. Jail sounds like a cruise to me at this point. Send the po po 5-0 ho. I dont give a damn."

Great pro active work like Sophia is what we need 🙏🙏🙏🙏👍🏻

If someone tells you that they have a refund for you, it's a scam. Do not ever let them convince you to install screen sharing software on your PC. They will try to get you to log into your online bank site and then take over, editing the HTML cache, so it looks like they accidentally gave you too much money and demand you give it back... with gift cards. I've heard the IRS one a few times now. There are massive call centers in India that do this all day every day.

Love to see this help in the world 🤘

Most of these *Fake Call Centers* are outside of the US, and the scammer on the phone with you will have a *VERY* heavy accent.

Why do old people fall for this to begin with??

I’m so glad that from my youth I’ve never really trusted anybody. I have to know you really really really really well before I trust you. I wish these people did the same thing. How sad

There's young people and people who work in anti-fraud who have fallen for different versions of this gift card scam. Also, family members of someone who investigates scams like this fell for it, as there's many different ways they do it, and it makes people think differently out of fear, no matter their age, gender, etc.

Sophia good work for looking out for this lady and I want to give you a compliment your very beautiful young lady

Im 28, these fucking scammers got me, what a shame 😢

I get these scam calls, too, I tell the scammers I would love to head to the store & buy gift cards, but I don't drive & I'm completely disabled. I can asked my daughter to drive me there, but she'll just asked millions of questions why I need all these gift cards, she's an attorney that works at a law firm that deals with criminal activities. God bless her soul. 🙏

Special place in hell for those kind of people

We need IRS, Amazon, Microsoft and these big companies to run an ad warning that they would never call about returns like these and would request gift card.

This happened to my Dad. Someone called saying my nephew was in jail and he was at a funeral for a friend, went to dinner, had drinks, and hit a pregnant woman. Luckily, my Dad said he needs to call his Dad. He hung up, called the Dad, who then called back saying grandson was at home sleeping, and never was at a funeral. Soooo sad.

The Safeway cashiers and staff are guardian angels to those vulnerable seniors

Sophia shows people have a good side.. and kids on computers have an opportunity to play detective and find these low life's and turn them in. But hard to believe how easy it is to use fear to control people...

No offense to anyone who has been fooled by this, but no legitimate agency is going to demand payment in gift cards 🤦🏻

If people weren't so gullible, the scam artists would be starving.

Off topic, but she's beautiful.

Is it coincidence that the cutest cashier was on the job hahaha

Why dont these retail stores STOP selling these gift cards period.

She’s so pretty

They have pulled this on both my parents. My Father nearly stroked out. I was tell them if there is a warrant. They would come to the house. Gift cards?!?!? Please! It just sounds really stupid!

RE: training I am surprised about how often I go to a new store or restaurant where the employees have no idea how to deal with a purchase that involves a gift card. I try my best to be patient especially when I need to wait for a manager. When the employees are working at a minimum wage job, it seems that they haven’t been trained about how to sell or redeem a gift card.

How could anybody of any age fall for that? Thats crazy

I commend Safeway for taking steps to protect the public and the elderly. Why did she not know to call a loved one or someone who could help? I feel for these people with all my heart. I just don't know why people are so naive, which keeps these scams going.

He threatened to put her behind the bars

Im just glad stores are finally training there employees to handle the situation. Merry Christmas everyone.

Bravo Safeway

I'm a senior and have always tried to keep up with technology (although I've never had a cell phone - bad remote location without a good signal). Right at the first few words of an obvious scam call, I tell them to 'f&ck off' and hang up. No, I do not use this word except to scammers! It baffles me that this happens to seniors with their mental faculties still intact though. Are they living under a rock that they do not hear of these scams on the news, documentaries, from family or friends, or from all of the scam baiters on the internet? We also have to keep aware with surveillance video cameras with 2-way audio so we don't just open the door to people too. People are becoming less kind or caring out there and we need to be alert and informed. Be skeptical or get scammed... I'd rather be rude and apologize later if I was wrong.

I was trained in 2020 as a cashier in a large grocery store. Not saying where because we WANT our elderly to come in.

When I worked at Target they trained us to make sure we question people who were buying large amounts of giftcards. "What are you buying this for?" "Has someone asked you to buy these?" etc

Hope Safeway appreciates there employees

Those scammers who pray on the elderly like this need to be charged with Elder Abuse in adtion to theft.!

They don’t see people ages they only see the money sign 💰

It amazes me when these "I'm your grandson" or "your grandson" needs money and the "grandson's" name is NEVER MENTIONED. WHY doesn't their "grandparent" ask for THEIR NAME? Then if there happens to be a correct GUESS about the name doesn't the "grandparent" CALL the parent to confirm the "grandchild" is really in trouble? It should always be a clue when they say "don't tell anybody about this call." They should KNOW it's a scam. But, older people are more trusting of almost everybody and that's why they pick on the elderly, so sad!

I just tell the person I have to talk to my attorney first, never hear from them again.

The best thing to do if you have caller id and you don’t recognize the number please don’t pick it up let it go to voicemail and remember that no law enforcement or any company is going to call you and ask for your information or say they have a warrant for your arrest that is a scam and the sad part is that they target the senior citizens and if they don’t have any one to watch over them they will get scammed. This is great that the grocery clerks are trained and to be aware of these gift card scams I think all merchants that sell gift cards should train there employees. I’m so glad they stopped the senior citizen from getting scammed thank you and May God bless and be with you all and your families always Amen. Another way they try and get someone is by calling and they make the number to show that it’s a legitimate agency so you would pick up the phone don’t fall for it remember let it go to voicemail. Stay Safe 👮🏻‍♂️🚔🚨

It is just baffling how many Americans fall for these scams. Most of them come from Nigeria or other foreign countries which means a foreign accent. Another dead giveaway is the fact that it is a phone call and not a letter on official government letterhead. The other problem is the ease at which our numbers are shared over the internet. There should be mandated liability for any company that share information with criminals either accidentally or intentionally. There should also be mandated lengthy prison terms for any criminal that is caught.

1:57 She's absolutely a wonderful woman. . .

These scammers need to be taken to the train station!

When I bought a Google gift card and then I found out it was a scam. Then I was stuck for returning it no refund on the gift card. Think before you buy a gift card, but I have learned my lesson. Don't do it

I have been scammed many times. DO NOT BUY GIFT CARDS. just say no

I call the scammers back and waste their time

Great job by the employee. Perhaps stores that sell gift cards could create signage warning and educating potential purchasers about scams and suggesting that they talk to a store manager if they’ve been threatened with negative consequences of any kind for seeking more information about a potential purchase.

Just give people real money as a gift... CASH!!! it’s that simple

The highest domination I've seen for a gift card is between 100-250 dollars. If they're trying to get $2000 worth or more, that's A LOT of gift cards!.

Good lady

My mom was scammed out of a thousand because the scammers told her somebody bought a computer with her Amazon account and she had to buy Target cards to prove her identity and nullify the purchase. He also told her not to tell anybody about it.

There is a video on here where this company here in the US, where able to get 3 scammer companies busted! So fun to watch them! If you can, check them out, show them to your seniors etc.

Remember, anyone is susceptible to scam. Young, old, new, and veteran(not likely but if the star is align it will happen) alike. They will primarily use scare tactics and timing (usually at night where we are not the most aware).

I work at a Safeway in Canada and always question what the gift card is for when someone asks for it. This one guy was a bit slow and said it was for his girlfriend. I had a feeling he was being scammed and told him about people pretending to be someone else to get money out of strangers. I hope I got through to him.

They should have a large posting at gift card locations regarding this.

My sister just told me that she spent $725 on a scam saying they were spectrum and they needed that money from a Target promotion and they told her not to tell Publix what the cards were for so should the cashier lady at the customer service ask what all that was for and she said it was for a wedding I can't believe my sister fell for that!! Then they called her back for more cards and money and they said cause the numbers weren't working. Then she finally caught on

my mother is 90 and i talk to her about these all the time. she knows to hang up on these calls

She seems far to lucid to fall for that.

The training is not enough. Any place that is selling gift cards should have a policy of clear signage that explains briefly the scam. And anyone purchasing more than $100 worth of gift cards should have the checkout clerk mention to them the scam. The very people on whom this scam is working are not going to check it out.

I would never fall for something like that cuz I know for a fact that cops would never try to strong arm you into paying such large amounts of money by buying gift cards I would just simply call the real cops and tell them what's going on

Gift cards need to be banned from the stores permanently

At this point, I don't see any legitimate need for gift cards. They should be banned.

Take them cards out of the store they got to go

I did this at CVS when I was 18...easy

Jean is smart to tell him to get off his lazy but & get a job seriously!!

If someone has a warrant for their arrest, a cop is not going to give them advanced notice. The cop would be actively looking for you.

If you get a call and don't recognize the number, don't answer. If it's a scam they won't call again, if it's real they will call again.

Those sons of bitches. The law needs to gt on that kind of crimes. Thanks for looking out for that lady

This lady needs to be under a conservatorship. She is too easily tricking with stupid stories.

My older sister tried to scam this way .. terrible,

Sophia is gorgeous. However, I must have missed the explanation as to how this scammer was able to force her to buy gift cards. Please enlighten us so we can avoid being scammed?

I need a cashier to stop my mom. She won't believe me. She's still talking to the guy.

Start requiring cashiers verbally ask if the gift card is for personal use or gift. Then refuse the sale if its for anything else. And gift cards can only be used in your region of purchase. I know it may be a pain in some cases. With tracking.

Improved policies and training is needed! Our most vulnerable are being scammed out of life savings, and we are aiding the scammers. First question, "are you on the phone with the person requesting the gift card?". Second question, "what company or government agency is requiring the gift cards?". A simple form with a checklist could go a long way, in solving this problem. The scammers know that this is a crime of high reward with little to no consequeces if caught. As such, the demand for the crime has to be address. Regrettably, 2022, and this gift card nonesense is still lucrative for the scammers.

People are stupid. Wow.

Everybody's afraid of something.