Anti-Money Laundering & Gift Card Fraud Prevention Policy

Effective Date: January 1, 2026
Company: North Carolina Dispensary USA / MBE Ventures Group LLC
Website: www.CoastalCannabis.us
Contact: Info@CoastalCannabis.us | (910) 380-0653

North Carolina Dispensary USA takes financial integrity, consumer protection, fraud prevention, and anti-money laundering compliance seriously. This Anti-Money Laundering & Gift Card Fraud Prevention Policy explains how our company monitors, limits, verifies, and reviews gift card purchases to help prevent fraud, suspicious activity, unauthorized transactions, resale abuse, and misuse of company-issued gift cards.

Gift cards are intended for legitimate customer purchases of eligible goods and services from our company only. They are not intended to function as cash, currency, investment instruments, money transfer tools, payment substitutes for third parties, or methods to avoid financial controls.

1. Purpose of This Policy

The purpose of this policy is to:

Prevent money laundering, fraud, and misuse of company gift cards; protect customers from scams and unauthorized activity; reduce chargebacks, stolen-payment activity, and suspicious bulk purchases; maintain accurate transaction records; and support lawful cooperation with payment processors, Shopify, banks, law enforcement, and regulatory authorities when required.

Federal guidance recognizes that closed-loop prepaid access, such as merchant-specific gift cards, is generally used only for goods or services from a defined merchant or location, but businesses should still maintain controls to prevent suspicious or abusive activity. FinCEN guidance also discusses limits and exclusions for certain closed-loop prepaid access arrangements.

2. Gift Cards Are Closed-Loop Store Credit

Company gift cards are closed-loop gift cards, meaning they may only be used toward eligible purchases from North Carolina Dispensary USA, its approved websites, or approved affiliated sales channels.

Gift cards may not be redeemed for cash, transferred as payment to third parties, exchanged for cryptocurrency, used to purchase financial products, used to pay debts, used for illegal goods or services, or used outside of approved company sales channels.

3. No Cash Redemption

Gift cards have no cash value except where required by applicable law. Gift cards may not be redeemed for cash, cash equivalents, money orders, wire transfers, cryptocurrency, peer-to-peer payments, or external payment cards.

Refunds for purchases made with a gift card may be returned to the original gift card balance, issued as store credit, or handled in another lawful manner determined by the company.

4. Purchase Limits

To reduce fraud and suspicious activity, the company may place limits on gift card purchases, including but not limited to:

A maximum dollar amount per gift card; a maximum number of gift cards per customer; a maximum total gift card value per order; a maximum total gift card value per day; limits by billing address, shipping address, phone number, email address, IP address, or payment method; and limits on bulk purchases, repeated purchases, or purchases that appear structured to avoid review.

As a general risk-control standard, the company may restrict gift card purchases so that a single customer, household, account, payment method, or related group cannot purchase unusually high amounts of gift cards in a short period of time without additional review.

5. Identity Verification

The company reserves the right to request identity verification before approving, issuing, activating, or honoring gift card purchases.

Verification may include name, billing address, phone number, email address, payment confirmation, government-issued identification, proof of payment authorization, or other information needed to confirm the transaction is legitimate.

Failure to provide requested verification may result in order cancellation, delayed fulfillment, account restriction, gift card deactivation, or refund to the original payment method.

6. Suspicious Activity Review

The company may review, delay, cancel, or refuse gift card transactions that appear suspicious, fraudulent, unauthorized, or inconsistent with normal customer behavior.

Examples of suspicious activity may include:

Multiple gift card purchases in a short time period; use of several different cards by the same customer; repeated failed payment attempts; mismatched billing information; unusual high-dollar purchases; use of VPNs, proxy services, or suspicious IP locations; rapid redemption immediately after purchase; attempted resale of gift cards; requests to send gift card numbers to third parties; suspected stolen payment information; chargeback history; or any activity that appears designed to hide the true purchaser, source of funds, or purpose of the transaction.

7. Gift Card Scam Prevention

Customers should never provide gift card numbers, PINs, screenshots, redemption codes, or digital gift card links to anyone claiming to be a government agency, utility company, law enforcement officer, debt collector, romantic partner, employer, prize promoter, or third-party seller.

The Federal Trade Commission warns consumers that gift cards are commonly used in scams because criminals pressure victims to buy gift cards and share the card information. Legitimate businesses and government agencies do not demand payment by gift card.

North Carolina Dispensary USA will never ask a customer to purchase a gift card to pay taxes, fines, legal fees, utility bills, debt collections, employment fees, prize fees, shipping fees for winnings, or any unrelated third-party obligation.

8. Prohibited Uses

Gift cards may not be used for:

Money laundering; fraud; illegal purchases; unauthorized resale; payment to third parties; evasion of purchase limits; structuring transactions to avoid review; purchasing gift cards with stolen payment methods; using gift cards to disguise the origin of funds; using multiple accounts to bypass controls; or any activity that violates company policy, Shopify rules, payment processor rules, or applicable law.

The company may refuse, cancel, suspend, or deactivate any gift card connected to prohibited use.

9. Bulk Gift Card Purchases

Bulk gift card purchases may require prior company approval. Businesses, organizations, event promoters, affiliates, resellers, or wholesale buyers must contact the company before placing large or repeated gift card orders.

The company may require additional documentation for bulk purchases, including business name, responsible party, intended use, recipient list, payment authorization, tax documentation, or written confirmation that the gift cards will not be resold, transferred for unlawful purposes, or used in connection with scams.

10. Recordkeeping

The company may maintain records related to gift card purchases, redemptions, cancellations, refunds, suspicious activity reviews, verification requests, customer communications, payment information, IP information, order history, and fraud-prevention decisions.

These records may be used for internal compliance, customer service, fraud prevention, chargeback defense, accounting, tax reporting, payment processor review, or lawful requests from law enforcement or regulatory authorities.

11. Cooperation With Payment Processors, Shopify, Banks, and Authorities

The company may cooperate with Shopify, payment processors, banks, card networks, law enforcement, regulators, fraud prevention providers, and legal representatives when investigating suspicious activity, chargebacks, unauthorized payments, stolen cards, identity theft, or misuse of gift cards.

If required or permitted by law, the company may report suspicious activity or provide relevant transaction records to appropriate parties.

12. Order Cancellation and Gift Card Deactivation

The company reserves the right to cancel, hold, refund, deactivate, or refuse any gift card order or balance if the company believes, in its sole discretion, that the transaction may involve fraud, abuse, suspicious activity, payment risk, violation of this policy, violation of Shopify or payment processor rules, or violation of applicable law.

If a gift card is deactivated due to suspected fraud or unauthorized payment activity, the company may require the purchaser or recipient to provide verification before any balance is restored.

13. Refunds and Chargebacks

Gift card purchases may be non-refundable unless required by law or approved by the company. If a customer disputes, reverses, or charges back a gift card purchase after the gift card has been issued, redeemed, transferred, or partially used, the company may deactivate the remaining balance, suspend the associated account, refuse future orders, and pursue recovery of losses where permitted by law.

Refunds, when approved, will generally be returned to the original payment method. The company does not issue refunds to alternate accounts, third-party payment methods, cryptocurrency wallets, wire transfers, or unrelated individuals.

14. Customer Responsibility

Customers are responsible for protecting their gift card information. Lost, stolen, misused, or shared gift card codes may not be replaced unless required by law or approved by the company after review.

Customers should treat gift card numbers and codes like cash. Once a gift card code is shared with another person, the company may not be able to prevent redemption.

15. Employee and Internal Controls

Company employees, contractors, affiliates, and representatives may be trained to identify suspicious gift card behavior, unusual purchase patterns, scam indicators, and potential payment abuse.

Employees may be required to escalate suspicious transactions, deny questionable requests, avoid manually overriding fraud controls without approval, and follow company procedures for documentation and review.

16. Policy Updates

The company may update, revise, or replace this Anti-Money Laundering & Gift Card Fraud Prevention Policy at any time. Updates may be made to reflect changes in company operations, Shopify features, payment processor requirements, fraud patterns, legal obligations, or risk-control procedures.

Continued purchase, use, or redemption of company gift cards after an update means the customer accepts the revised policy.

17. Important Legal Notice

This policy is intended for general business, fraud-prevention, and customer-protection purposes. It does not create a bank account, deposit account, money transmission account, investment account, or financial services relationship. Gift cards are company-issued closed-loop store credit and may only be used according to company rules and applicable law.

Nothing in this policy should be interpreted as legal, financial, tax, or regulatory advice. The company may consult legal counsel, compliance professionals, Shopify, payment processors, or financial institutions when needed to confirm proper procedures.

For questions regarding this policy, contact:

North Carolina Dispensary USA / MBE Ventures Group LLC
Email: Info@CoastalCannabis.us
Phone: (910) 380-0653
Website: www.CoastalCannabis.us