Selling gift cards and vouchers without inviting fraud

Whether a shop should run its own closed-loop gift vouchers or sell third-party cards, and how staff can spot gift card scams at the counter.

By Achekam · 11 October 2026 · 5 min read · For Retail businesses in South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya

Every December, a gift shop or a homeware store sees the same customer: someone who wants to buy a present for a person whose taste they cannot guess. A voucher solves their problem and brings the recipient back into the shop. Many owners also like the idea of money arriving now for goods that will be chosen later.

Gift cards and vouchers bring two less welcome things with them. They create an obligation the shop must honour, sometimes years later, and they are a favourite tool of fraudsters. This article looks at which kind of card a single shop can sensibly run, how to warn staff about the common scams, and how vouchers are recorded so that money received is not mistaken for money earned.

Closed loop or open loop

Investopedia explains that closed-loop gift cards generally work only with a single merchant, or a group of affiliated retailers, and are usually not reloadable. Open-loop gift cards run on payment networks and can be used wherever that card network is accepted.

For an independent shop, the choice is practical:

A shop running its own scheme is running a closed-loop voucher. Selling someone else's open-loop cards at the counter is a different arrangement, made under that issuer's terms; agree the accounting with your accountant before you start.

Paying part with a voucher

Investopedia notes that many gift cards have minimum and maximum initial loading amounts, and can be used to pay for part of a purchase, with the balance paid by cash, debit or credit card. Customers expect the same of a shop's own vouchers: the recipient picks something that costs more than the voucher and pays the difference.

Decide in advance:

• the smallest and largest amount a voucher can be sold for;
• whether a voucher can be spent in more than one visit;
• whether the shop gives change in cash if the purchase is less than the voucher, or keeps the balance on the voucher, which is simpler to control.

Investopedia also notes that many cards can be registered online, so the remaining balance can be tracked and frozen if the card is lost. A shop's own scheme can offer something similar simply by recording the buyer's name and number against the voucher code when it is sold. How to take part of a payment by voucher and the rest another way is covered in split payments at the till.

Two scams staff should know about

Gift cards attract criminals because, as both scams below show, the card number alone can be enough to take the value.

Tampered cards on display. Investopedia warns that scammers tamper with physical gift cards in store to obtain the card number, then steal the funds once a customer loads money onto the card. It advises against buying cards that look damaged or tampered with. If the shop displays cards for customers to pick up, check the stand regularly, keep stock behind the counter where possible, and never activate a card whose packaging has been opened.

Customers being scammed. Investopedia warns that scammers often trick people into buying gift cards as a form of payment and handing over the card number. The caller may claim to be from a tax authority, a utility or a family member in trouble. Staff are not police, but a few gentle questions help when an older customer is buying an unusually large amount of gift cards in a hurry:

1. Are these a present, or are you paying someone with them?
2. Has someone asked you to read the card numbers to them over the phone?
3. Would you like to check with a family member before finishing the purchase?

Treat any request to settle a bill, a fine or a debt in gift cards as a warning sign. Investopedia's guide to gift cards covers how open-loop and closed-loop cards work and the scams businesses and buyers should watch for.

Vouchers at the till in Achekam

In Achekam, gift vouchers are sold at the till with a code and held as a liability until they are redeemed by that code. They are sold without VAT. In South Africa, a voucher sold this way lasts at least 36 months. For Kenya and Nigeria, the no-VAT-on-sale treatment is marked as not yet confirmed, and the business's own setting applies, so check it with your tax adviser.

When the voucher is spent, the till records it as a payment. Every till sale posts each payment method to its own account, and a voucher payment goes to the voucher liability account (2350) rather than to cash. So the liability shrinks as vouchers are used, and the sale is recognised when the goods leave the shop. For a similar scheme in a service business, compare gift vouchers at a spa or gym.

Store credit and money left on expired vouchers

A till refund can also be given as store credit, issued as a voucher. That keeps refunds and gift vouchers in one system with one set of rules, which is easier for staff and for the books.

Some vouchers are never fully spent. Expired vouchers with money left on them are listed, and a supervisor or manager who did not issue a voucher can take its balance to income. The second-person rule matters: the person who sold or issued the voucher cannot also be the one who writes it off, which closes an easy route for staff to sell a voucher, keep the cash and quietly expire it.

Before your next busy season, set your voucher limits, brief staff on the two scams above, and decide who will review the list of expired vouchers each month.

General guidance only, not advice on your own circumstances. Tax and payroll rules change: check the current position with the authority or your adviser.