A 93-year-old man pushed his cart out of a Portland Costco at 5 p.m. and made it home by 5:30. By the time he picked up the phone to call Visa and Mastercard, thieves had already run his cards at a nearby store. The detective on the case put the haul at about $1,500 in gift cards. That is roughly the length of a sitcom episode, and the wallet was out of his back pocket before he had finished crossing the parking lot.
Portland police released the store surveillance video. Three men fell in behind the older shopper as he walked to his car, closed the gap, and lifted the wallet clean out of his left rear pocket. Detectives said at the time that they feared other victims had not come forward.
These Crews Are Working Big-Box Lots in Two States
What surprised the detectives was how coordinated the whole operation is. Detective Zaitz described a local crime syndicate working big-box store parking lots across Oregon and Washington. “They’re pretty organized,” she said. “I think this is something that they’ve been doing for a really long time.” This is not one guy having a bad week. This is a business.
Police confirmed pickpocketing attempts at Costco warehouses in Portland and Tigard, plus a string of Washington towns including Kirkland, Puyallup, Tukwila and Lynnwood. And they do not always need you standing there. In one case a woman was loading her car with her purse tucked inside the vehicle. The crew reached in and grabbed her wallet while she was busy with her groceries just a few feet away.
The Necklace Trick That Leaves You Wearing Fakes
There is a version of this crime that is almost polite while it happens. On April 6, 2026, an 85-year-old man was walking through the Costco lot on Erb Street West in Waterloo when a man and a woman struck up a friendly conversation with him. While he was chatting, the woman slipped the necklace right off his neck. The pair took off in a white SUV, and he did not feel a thing. Police are still investigating.
The cleverest ones do not just take the jewelry. They replace it. On March 20, 2026, a shopper in a parking lot in Franconia, Virginia, was approached by people in a black SUV. By the time the driver pulled away, the victim’s necklace and bracelets had been swapped out for costume jewelry. The victim spotted the substitute right away. Fairfax County police have since issued felony pickpocketing and robbery warrants for a 21-year-old Baltimore woman over two similar thefts elsewhere in the county. She has not been charged over the Franconia case and remains wanted.
The approach is always the same soft opener. Someone asks for directions. Someone compliments what you are wearing. Someone tries to place “gifted” jewelry on you. It feels warm and random, and that is exactly the point. The friendliness is the tool.
Why the Parking Lot Is Always the Scene
A parking lot is a transitional space, the in-between zone where you are moving from one thing to another and your guard is down. It is semi-public, everyone in it is on their way somewhere, and nobody is really watching anybody. Criminals do not need muscle. They need a few seconds when you are not paying attention.
Think about the moment you are most distracted at Costco. You are wrestling a giant flat of water into the trunk, corralling a kid, or shoving the cart into the corral so it does not roll into someone’s car. That gap is exactly when these crews strike. One person keeps you talking or occupied while a partner works the purse, the pocket, or the necklace. The fix is boring but real: brief, deliberate scanning of who is near you and who is moving toward you.
A Real Costco Email That Works Against You
The threats are not just in the parking lot. In June 2026, a much smarter email scam showed up, and this one does not use a fake email at all. It uses a genuine Costco order confirmation, with real formatting, real purchase details, and real branding. Nothing about it screams fraud, because most of it is not fraud.
The trick is where the scammer sneaks in. They abuse email forwarding systems so a real order confirmation lands in extra inboxes, then they edit the shipping name or address field to plant a message like “Order in transit, call to cancel” followed by a phone number. Call it, and a fake “customer support” agent picks up. From there they push you to install remote access software so they can see your screen, then walk you through a bogus refund that shows fake “overpayments” to confuse you. The endgame is getting you to “return” money that was never sent, usually by wire transfer or gift cards. The rule to remember: a real Costco email will never ask you to call a random number for urgent action.
The Free Gift Card That Quietly Bills You Every Month
Another 2026 wave comes dressed as a reward. The message looks like it is from “Costco Rewards” or “Costco Member Services,” congratulates you, and offers a valuable prize for a two-minute survey. Common subject lines dangle a $500 gift card, a Ninja CREAMi, a Yeti cooler, or a Samsung TV. Click through and you get a survey page in Costco’s red and white, asking easy throwaway questions like how often you shop there to make the prize feel earned.
Then comes the real ask. They want your name, address, phone, and a card number to cover a small shipping fee, priced low enough to feel harmless. That charge is the bait. Buried in the fine print, submitting the form signs you up for a recurring monthly charge for some “wellness club” or “savings program” you never wanted and did not knowingly join.
The Phone Call That Already Knows Your Name
Costco keeps an official “Currently Known Scams” page, and one entry on it is unsettling because the caller already has your details. The phone shows a spoofed Costco number, like the home office line at 425-313-8100. The caller says they are from “Costco Chinese Member Service” and already knows your name, address, and phone number. Their story is that an account has been opened in your name in China with fraud activity on it, and that police have been notified. They will even offer to speak Chinese to sound more official.
A related scam targets the Executive Membership. That tier earns you a 2% annual reward on qualifying purchases, generally capped at $1,250 a year, and crooks email or text pretending to hand it over early with a link to click. Here is the giveaway: Costco only sends that reward certificate by mail, packaged with your annual renewal notice, and only to the primary member. So any text, email, or call offering it another way is not real.
What Actually Keeps You Safe
In the lot, the advice from Detective Zaitz is blunt. “Have your head on a swivel,” she said. Do not leave your purse hanging on the back of a chair at the food court. Keep it in your lap or in front of you. When you unload groceries, put your purse in the car first and then deal with the cart. If you carry a wallet in your back pocket, button it and stay aware of who steps in close.
Online, the pattern behind every scam is the same trick: urgency plus an unfamiliar number or link. A message screaming that your account is about to be suspended is trying to make you act before you think. Never click links or call numbers inside an unsolicited email or text. Instead, go straight to Costco.com yourself and check your orders and account there. Experts also recommend turning on two-factor authentication and watching your card statements for charges you do not recognize.
The 93-year-old whose wallet went missing summed up why any of this is worth the small hassle. “It’s so devastating when you lose everything in your wallet,” he said. “Then you have to go through the process of replacing your driver’s license and other important cards.” A few seconds of paying attention in the parking lot, and a firm no to any message that reaches out to you first, is a lot cheaper than that.
