21 Messages
Target Gift Card Scam *BEWARE THEY ARE GOOD*
*Edited Preface* Upon reading my experience please take the time to reply if you are engaged in the scammers net. I hope to prevent more victims and this post should serve as reference for Xfinity to take action.
Well, I just got hooked by this scam this weekend. Soon after completing the "Target Promotion" I searched Target Xfinity promotion and my stomach sank. I will tell you that I am with it on the tech front, have never fell for a scam, easily ID the fishing garbage, always check where emails are from even if they look to be from my bank, cable company etc. Given the level of detail they operate with makes me believe that it's either an internal job at Xfinity/Comcast or they have had a major data breach in which they are not aware or they have not acknowledged to their customers. Part of the hook is that Xfinity puts you on promotions that expire, raise the prices in an effort to get you to search for another promotion and/or contact them where they attempt to bundle additional services. Another problem with Xfinity that p[lays into their hands is that contacting an actual person at Xfinity requires detective like skill.
I received a voicemail offering up to a 50% off promotion for 36 months. Sounds good as it gets my internet only service from $90/mo. to $45/mo., which is reasonable as many other internet services today are in that range. Upon calling the scammers had full access to my Xfinifty account and history. They could not have logged in externally with my password and user ID as when that is done from an unknown device there is a 2 step authentication which I did not receive. They outlined the promotion which was a no 36 month term from lowering the amount to $45, hey would waive the current $90 bill due, and send me a $50 gift card. About half way through a 30 minute call they explained the "catch" in that this promotion was sponsored by Target, which through this promotion and advertising subsidizes the promotion. The details the agent had included that I was on autopay and had access to only the last 4 digits of my checking account that was used. They knew my bill had just recently increased (previously I have spoken to a live Xfinity agent when promotions expire through a reach out from Xfinity), they knew the cost of my service, the speed of my service, and that I was internet only. In finalizing the deal they explained the connection with Target and that it required paying for one year of service in advance and paying with Target gift cards which drives revenue for the sponsor. Upon accepting the offer they waived my current bill due and asked me to check the Xfinity app and confirm that the bill had been waived, which is was and now was showing $0 due. The agent explained that he was with the sales department and gave me a promotion code to reference and provided a number to billing to complete the process. The agent explained that it had to be completed within 24hrs and provided a number [Edited: "Invalid Phone Number"] to call and explained that billing was open until 8pm. I secured two gift cards totaling $540, called "billing" and all sounded like Xfinity and legit. The agent requested my promotion reference number, pulled up the details, explained the promotion, and took the gift cards as payment.
The initial VM I had received said " Hello this is Xfinity. We are contacting you about your 50% discount offer on your monthly bill which is set to expire today. Call back at this number on your caller ID to confirm your account and lock in your savings. Thank you."
After three call to Xfinity and utilizing my acquired detective work I was finally able to connect to a person to confirm the promotion was indeed not an active promotion with Xfinity. They connected me with a security department and after 20 minutes I spoke to an agent. The agent took the information and provided a reference number and said it would be escalated I would be hearing from the department. To perhaps save another time, the direct number to the security department is 888-565-4329.
user_n9yyhk
1 Message
5 months ago
I almost bought two cards but decided to google it, and found that this is the scam. What puzzles me that I still got a credit on my account posted today, it looks like this
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Amount $68.00
Date Jan 23, 2025
Status Payment posted
Payment method
Confirmation number [Edited: "Personal Information"]
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I'm not sure if this payment gets reversed later because the transaction will be declined by the bank, or something else.
It would be nice if Xfinity adds extra security check, so some random people are not able to post payments to other people's accounts w/o some sort of a confirmation from an account holder.
I'm also wondering how they got my information, and are able to post a payment to my account w/o knowing my account number.
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user_l143w4
12 Messages
5 months ago
As a precaution, everyone using Xfinity should immediately change their password and activate 2 tier verification on their account. When I s/w X's security rep, they also flagged my account under a "2-level restriction" as an additional layer of protection so you may want to also request that. Ironically, right after I got off the phone with them, I got a C/B from "Xfinity". I thought it was them calling back but wasn't sure if it was another scam, so I questioned them for 5 minutes and made them verify themselves. Turned to only be a sales call and the rep said he's getting a lot of that questioning! The odd part was he said he saw my monthly fee was $147.00 which he said was TOO high and he wanted to check on it which was a nice courtesy. It should be noted that somehow the scammers also upgraded my account from $35.00/month on auto-pay to that new amount on a checking account (not mine) which I don't understand. So, there seems to be little question they've either hacked the system or have someone on the inside.
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user_3cx2x0
1 Message
5 months ago
Just happened to me but my saving grace was posting my "deal" on a popular deals site/app, with comments to my deal stating it was a scam (before I could go out after work & buy the Target gift cards). Same thing with the credit ($70) they credited into my Xfinity account as I was on the phone with them (confirmed the deposit while logged into my account). Like the OP, I am usually very keen at sniffing out phishing & other scams.
The point of my reply is to share that I am COMPLETELY & UTTERLY BAFFLED with so many reports of this, even in multiple threads on the Xfinity forums... AND WITH MANY XFINITY EMPLOYEES acknowledging & commenting... multiple posts on the XFINITY forums that go back for at least two years (do a quick Google search of "Xfinity target gift card scam")... I believe it is borderline criminal, at the very least, culpable negligence on the part of Xfinity for not directly communicating such a well-orchestrated & documented scam that, as the OP states, most likely involves someone from the inside of Xfinity and/or a data breach due to the level of access of account details & ability to credit the Xfinity account.
Xfinity should have, long ago, alerted customers to this highly sophisticated scam via written and/or electronic communication....Something very easy & cost-effective to do. Again, please google & look at how many times this has been brought to the attention, in specific detail, to Xfinity employees.
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user_e5j454
2 Messages
5 months ago
This literally just happened to me today. Same exact setup. Received a voicemail saying I was going to lose the 50% discount (which I wasn't aware I had) if I did not cvall them today. It took me 4 calls to get through to someone who sounded totally legit and he ran the whole "pay for a year in advance, get the next three years locked in at $69 per month, he would credit my last payment" thing. He gave me a number to call back by today or tomorrow, with a reference number, and that it had to be paid with my target card. He said if I wasn't able to use my target credit card, I could apply for a second one and use that or get target gift cards. He said Target was running the promo in partnership to help lower income people trying to get internet services. I was going to pay using AMEX (and almost did) before he clarified it had to be Target because it was their promotion (dodged bullet number one). Then I had my husband get $780 in Target gift cards. I had to work until 7pm and actually went to call [Edited: Personal Information] (fake number which was supposed to be the billing department) and received a recording that the department was closed and their business hours were Monday through Friday 8-5 PST. I only got that recording because I had to work late until 7pm (dodged bullet number two). I called 1-800-COMCAST and finally got to a level of automated service that let me at least CHAT with a live agent. This person informed me that the number they called me from and the number I called back to (almost) make payment were not Xfinity numbers. I even received a survey text after I spoke from the scammer that came from Xfinity. It is really sad. I am suspicious by nature, and this was so well orchestrated. The person I chatted with (who actually was from Xfinity) was very helpful. Still, how did this scammer get my information. He knew exactly how much my bill was, what services I had, and my name and how many locations I had service at. Did Xfinity have a breech or is someone on the inside running this scam?
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user_gxvbrl
1 Message
5 months ago
This scam is great for a couple reasons. 1) Xfinity recently doubled my bill for home internet 2) Talking to an Xfinity rep about pricing is painfully frustrating . So when you get a voicemail about pricing changing, it's very compelling. Then it takes the scammer 30-45 minutes to get through everything, well that's just a normal [Edited: Language] call with Xfinity. If it was quick and efficient, that would have been a red flag. Fortunately I did not have a Target credit card, and it was late, so I couldn't get gift cards until the next day. Then the lightbulb went off about this being a scam. Thanks for heads up. Maybe I'll switch to Verizon anyway.
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powerjenn
New Poster
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2 Messages
5 months ago
I had the exact same experience as k0931z except I never got the gift cards and never called back.
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user_c7zeob
11 Messages
5 months ago
I too fell for this exact scam. Reported to customer service and was told I’d receive a call from a representative higher up in security department within 3 days. 10 days later I called them. Agent basically said there was nothing Xfinity could or would do about it because I must have given the scanners my info via phishing email or text. This was not the case. When I asked the rep how are they so sure the information wasn’t part of a data breach? A simple google search shows the company had a breach in December’23. The representative hung up on me.
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user_rrxjl7
2 Messages
5 months ago
This just happened to me today in the afternoon and was exactly the way it's been described in the post, word for word. Luckily I just googled the 'xfinity 3 year price guarantee target card' that took me here, before I was going to go grab the target gift cards and fall for this trap. Also It's shocking that XFinity is doing nothing about this to prevent the scam and get directly in touch with the FBI (on behalf of their customers) to stop this scam and prevent more gullible consumers from falling into the scammers' trap.
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user_vanvgc
2 Messages
5 months ago
I just got the same call, and as the original poster said, these people are very good. They knew when my statement would cycle and the amount of my bill. They hadn't gotten to the part about the paying via the Target gift cards yet, but had said that the "promotion" is sponsored by Target. I was skeptical, so I demanded they send me an email with the details in writing, which they did! They created a fake invoice with the Xfinity logo on it and emailed it to me. However, that's how I busted them for sure because I'm an I/T person and I run my own email server, which means I can see the actual incoming IP address and domain name from which the email came from, and it wasn't from Xfinity, and also it didn't have my actual Xfinity account number on it. The email came from IP address [Edited: "Personal Information"], which is from ISP IONOS and is located in Philadelphia, and the domain name it matched to is [Edited: "Personal Information"]. I called Xfinity security and gave them this information.
This has to be the result of a hack or an insider at Comcast. These people knew too much, including how much I was paying and when my statement cycled. I also told that to Xfinity security.
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user_2ypr5r
2 Messages
5 months ago
The same exact thing happened to me.
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user_6a5ruf
5 Messages
5 months ago
It happend to me today. A person called me and told he is from Xfinity offering 50 % discount on my current Bill and told me that it will be locked for 4 years, also they will waive my Feb Bill. I was looking to lower my bill and hence did not suspect. I told him I am interested and he waived my Feb bill and I got the confirmation from Xfinity number. He then told me I have to pay $640 upfront to cover my 8 months bill and since the promotion is with target, I need to pay upfront by Target Gift card. He also offered me $100 if I pay within next 2 hours.
I bought $640 Gift Card from Target and paid by giving them gift card number and access code. But then I Google searched and realized it is a fraud. I reported it to Target immediately and they manged to hold the funds back. The numbers they used to call me are [Edited: Invalid Numbers]. They appear to be Xfinity numbers when you call back. But this is a fraud. I made a fraud report as well as Police report.
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user_odlviy
1 Message
5 months ago
Same thing happened to me. And the person had my cell phone #, my email address, my last month Xfinity payment amount and next month’s payment amount with the price increase. Target stopped me when I tried to purchase a large $ amount gift card, pulled me aside to talk to a manager who advised me that this was a total scam and they have no business/promotional agreement with Xfinity.
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Again
Expert
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31.8K Messages
5 months ago
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user_i1qrev
1 Message
5 months ago
Happened to me just now. Feb 6th 2025. 12:53pm. I did not buy target gift card. When he said I can pay using target gift card, something went off in my head. Then I saw the email they sent me, it says its from Xfinity. But when I click on the sender it has a totally different email id. And combined with the fact he wanted me to do this in the next 3 hours, I knew this is a scam.
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user_0mj4u0
3 Messages
5 months ago
had this just happen to us earlier today!
scare you with $400-500 fine if you dont comply and YOU HAVE 24 HOURS! etc
They even knew where the closest place was to go buy the gift cards and gave instructions to go there.
Posted a fake $68 payment to the account that im on the line now with comcast handling...
Once they said about gift cards thats the red flag for a scam! Hung up on them and they still threatened with the fines/charges.
Other notes:
they send you a "fake text" saying your bill has been paid/waived and its just a spoof text
tell you to call a number if you think its fake/not real call and they give you another convincing toll free number but its not to comcast
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