The Christmas Gift Wrapping Scam

It’s Christmas and people are shopping, buying gifts, and going to parties. Many take advantage of free wrapping services set up in malls at this time of the year. These are the booths that set up before the holidays then vanish like ghosts in the night afterward and are not permanent stores.

Shoppers drop their gift off for wrapping and are told to return for it in an hour (or so). When they return they get their lovely gift, often in exchange for a donation. It is not until after Christmas that the problems arise. The recipient of the gift opens the box to discover it contains, not the camera purchased for them, but a lump of coal, instead.

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Indeed what happened was the person running the wrapping booth took the gift behind a curtain, removed the valuable camera from the box, and put inside the box something of similar weight. Rocks could substitute heavier items, and sometimes such care is given to the sound items make shifting inside the box that it is hard to detect a fraud. The items are quickly resold on the black market. Untraceable items, such as CD’s and DVD’s, are often sold at flea markets, even garage sales.

The beauty is that the crime isn’t discovered until it is much too late to be traced back to those who committed it, and then, unless the perpetrators are found with the goods, it is hard to prove they didn’t receive a camera box with a lump of coal in it themselves, and innocently wrapped that.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/dainec/2499273/

To prevent being a victim of this crime shoppers should never leave gifts to be wrapped where they are unseen. It is far safer to wrap ones own gift or to get a gift bag and use that. Keep your eyes on your merchandise.

This scam has been seen in London, England, other areas of Europe, and in the United States, but no area is safe from people looking to scam somebody even at Christmastime.  The BBC Series – The Real Hustle has been warning people of this, and other scams, for some time, yet every year people continue to fall victim. 

A variation of the scam can be carried out in a retail store that provides wrapping as a service. It would be very hard to trace, and harder to prove who committed the crime as many stores hire temporary, seasonal, help before Christmas.