U.S. Mint breaks up credit reward scams

WASHINGTON, Dec. 15 (UPI) -- The U.S. Mint says some consumers were buying Sacagawea coins with their credit cards just to rack up rewards on their credit cards.

The simple scam is "not the right thing to do," said Tom Jurkowsky, a spokesman for the Mint, the Los Angeles Times reported Tuesday.

The Mint said it has notified about 75 cardholders who were using the scheme to accumulate reward miles from airlines that the jig was up.

The Mint traced the problem to June 2008, when it allowed buyers to purchase $500 in dollar coins depicting presidents Washington, John Adams, Jefferson, Madison and Jackson, the Times said.

The sky was the limit, so to speak, on Sacagawea coins, however, and shipping was free. Consumers quickly figured out they could order coins at face value with credit cards, earn rewards from credit card companies and use the coins to pay their credit card bills.

Jurkowsky said the Mint will start billing coin purchases as "quasi-cash," which usually do not qualify as an acceptable purchase under credit card reward programs.