“Check Your Receipts” — TikToker Warns of Gift Card Scam at Major Midwest Grocer

During the holidays, it is easy to get swept up in the spirit of giving and lose track of where your dollars and cents go. In the lead-up to Christmas this year, generosity was reported as still being high despite many Americans engaging in extra penny-pinching practices due to financial hardships. But TikToker, chef, and outdoorsman @the_journey76 has a warning for everyone: Keep a close eye on your finances.

In a video bluntly titled "Check your receipts folks," which has hit a sizable 2.5 million views, he shared a story that left him, and many of his viewers, suspicious of a potential grocery store scam. Speaking from his truck he explains what happened.

"Check your receipts, folks … I just left a major grocery retailer here in Indiana. Starts with a K." It's very possible that he could be referring to Kroger. Other patrons of the chain, like this Redditor, have reported on pricing they claim to have uncovered whilst shopping there.

Furthermore, in August of 2024, a Kroger executive had admitted to "price gouging" according to CBS Detroit.

The TikToker continued to state in his clip: "And after I walked through and priced everything, keeping a running total in my head, I got my little 10 or 12 items, and the numbers didn’t add up at checkout. There was an $8 difference."

One might chalk up this discrepancy to an honest mistake. However, he explained further in the video.

Upon further inspection of his transaction total, he noticed that there was a UPC code that added an $8 charge to his order. However, there wasn't an item associated with the UPC code, just a random code that added more money to his total ... just because.

"There was a little UPC code that ran across the bottom of the screen, and it was eight bucks. I brought the cashier over. She looked at me like I lost my mind, which already kind of made me think, hmm. I said, ‘I have no idea what that is.’ She said, ‘I have no idea what that is, either.’ She took it right off without asking anything. Didn’t bother, didn’t wonder."

The TikToker seemed to have taken issue with the fact that she had a lack of curiosity pertaining to the mystery charge. Furthermore, her alacrity in removing it without further question also raised eyebrows.

"I wonder how many people don’t catch that and are just buying, because when I went to the office and asked what that UPC code would have represented, they said, ‘Well, if it’s only a barcode at the bottom, that’s usually a gift card.'"

Some in the comments section of his video chalked this up to a potential technical error, others felt something more insidious was going on. "We check our receipts regularly and have found so many errors," one user wrote. "One store stopped putting prices on screen so you really have to watch this," wrote another.

That, in of itself, seems like a particularly shady practice.

One user on the app said that they were on the receiving end of this retail skuduggery. "I bought onions on sale yesterday for $1.99. It rang up $5.99. Luckily, I caught it."

But others thought the incident was less of a mistake and more of an instance where the TikToker caught the grocer in the act. Like this commenter who accused the cashier of being in on it.

"She knew exactly what it was!" they remarked.

Another also believed that this is a scam cashiers pull on unsuspecting customers. It involves them charging gift card balances to shoppers' cards. Following their transaction, they then keep the gift card balance for themselves.

"They have remotes that they can use to add gift cards to your transaction then they will pick up the gift card you bought for themselves.”

It's not difficult to imagine how someone potentially engaging in this scam could rack up a decent amount of credits that they can go and exchange for goods in store. Or even sell the gift cards at a discount for cash.

Retail fraud reports indicate that scammers are only getting craftier. In 2024, over $1 trillion was lost to scams, globally. Investment scams are at the top of the above-linked report: amounting to $4.6 billion. This was followed by impostor scams worth $2.7 billion. ATM fraud, phishing, and cryptocurrency cons were all up year-over-year. With so many types of scams possible, criminals now have a cornucopia of methods to choose from to carry out their attacks.

Also, data breaches were up in 2024. The U.S. hit a new record with over 3,200 reported breaches — a significant 78 percent jump from 2023.

Think about how often you've received an email or piece of correspondence pertaining to data breaches, whether it’s your bank, insurance company, or a brick-and-mortar retailer.

There are additional costs associated with data breaches outside of just the cost of goods as well the average breach in the U.S. now costs companies $9.36 million to thoroughly address. Lawyers, programmers, and subsequent payouts: These all cost money.

Even more troubling is the role that rapidly developing technology is being implemented as part of these con jobs. Deepfakes — insanely realistic audio or video created by AI — are now being used to impersonate trusted individuals, defraud companies, or exploit personal relationships. A shocking 53 percent of businesses have been “had” by DeepFake scams.

One Chinese finance worker earlier this year, was tricked into releasing $25 million to scammers who used DeepFake technology to impersonate the company’s Chief Financial Officer during a video conference call. Maybe he should've watched @the_journey76’s video.