Businesses in downtown Kamloops are being asked to check the serial numbers on gift certificates before accepting them.

Kamloops Central Business Improvement Association (KCBIA) Executive Director Carl DeSantis says it’s after hundreds of dollars of gift certificates were bought during the holiday season with a stolen credit card.

He says many of the gift certificates – which can be redeemed at any business in the KCBIA area – are still in circulation.

“We do our best to verify that its a valid credit card and my staff did just that at the time,” DeSantis told NL News. “And when we processed the information through our point of sale machine at the office, we got a verification code that suggested that everything was okay at the time.”

DeSantis is asking business owners who get a fraudulent gift certificate to not return it to the person and call the RCMP instead.

“Any business that accepts a fraudulent GC will not be reimbursed for it,” he said.

And DeSantis says the KCBIA is working on a new gift certificate system.