Is It Even Possible to Avoid the Gift Card Scam?

This one is a very serious problem.

[thecableguy]

My wife has elderly people almost every day trying to buy gift cards. She asks them if they’re buying them for someone on the phone. Or if they’re buying them for viruses on their computer or any other scams. She tries to convince them that they are getting scammed and call the police on them.

[tracylynnw]

I work in a small boutique, this lady came in the store in may, she had one of those visa gift cards, she told me she had gotten the card as a Christmas gift with a $100.00 balance, she had purchased something with a small amount around $5.00 or so when she first received the card, so she thought the card had a balance of around $95.00 left on the card….but to her surprise, there was only around $40 left on the card, she had the original packaging with the card, I read the back of it, in very small print, there was a clause stated that every month that the card was carrying a balance over to the next month, it would charge a small fee. Since it has been six months since she used the card, visa ate up half the balance on her gift card. Now try to tell me that is not a scam? Also in the fine print, it said every time you call to check your balance on the card there will be a small fee withdrawn from the balance of the card. I was so angry for her 😡

[AB-yebw]

Living in Sacramento, my son bought me a Home Depot gift card for Christmas last year valued at $100. Found out it was drained before and Home Depot customer service couldn’t care less.
No Gift Cards.

[curtisscott]

A year ago I purchased (2) gift cards from WalMart's online store for a holiday gift. Upon trying to use them, the recipient found the balance to be ZERO. Walmart was completely UNcoorporative with any attempts to provide security information about where the cards were UNloaded or by whom. No refund was allowed. I suspect it was a complete INSIDE JOB because these gift cards were never on a store shelf but came directly from the fulfillment center. Steve's right: Say "NO" to Gift Cards - even those purchased online.

[halfnelson]

Steve didnt mention the fact that Target refused to work with the police in order to catch these people. Target also refused to reimburse the ppl that got ripped off. I'm done shopping there after this.

[jblyon]

My local supermarket has signs at every register/self checkout stating that if you were asked to purchase gift cards by someone else that it is a scam. The notice also states to check the scratch off PIN section of a gift card for any signs that it has been tampered with.

From a technical perspective, it would be trivial for the gift card processing companies to flag gift cards which have their value checked before they're activated, or that have the value checked repeatedly. They don't care though, because they get their cut regardless of where the money ends up.

[rinkuraku]

It's worse than you think. There are cards being stolen and swapped enroute to the stores.

[Thunder-]

Yes, by the manufacturer/retailer. As a consumer you can't do anything beyond being vigilant and hoping for the best.

Either the manufacturer needs to better design the tamper proofing on the card, or retailers have to change their practices. For instance, keeping the gift cards behind the counter and putting a dummy card on the shelf would work, swap the dummy card for a real one at time of purchase and return the dummy for the next customer.

[davidmccleary]

The reduction of staff at stores has also led to an increase in shoplifting

[krazyntx]

Happened to a lady in Houston just recently who bought five Walmart gift cards to give to needy families for Christmas. The cards were $200 each and she bought five of them. However, four of the cards were immediately drained by someone else at four different Walmart stores in the Houston area.

[MrRedtaco]

I’ve been to small stores where they put gift cards behind locked cases like razors or mouthwash.

[dividebyzero]

Though putting them in a box behind counter might work- except for employee theft, there are better choices. If a balance is checked for a card that hasn't been loaded yet, invalidate the card so it can't be loaded ever. At POS, it should be a trivial matter to get a message back saying the card loading failed- try a different card. The store will pretty quickly figure it out if half the cards can't be sold.

[sistakia]

I was drinking water when you said, "blew up like a piñata at a kid's birthday party" and I almost choked! 😂

Seriously though, I'm sorry that thieves, scammers, and just evil people are ruining lives like never before! It makes it difficult to impossible to live normal lives. How many friends and family members have been sent to voicemail because the amount of scammers that have invaded our phones?! How many of us don't use emails anymore for the same reason? I could go on but I think I made my point.

[boikatsapiens]

Ben on top of the left-most stack of the Mich Law books.

[travelncg]

There are channels on YouTube where they are documenting a scam, buy gift cards, give to scammer BUT DRAIN the card while the scammer is watching... listening to their protestations is very satisfying.

[MB-iggl]

This started happening like 10 minutes after they started selling gift cards away from the registers. It used to be "Gift Certificates" you bought for whatever amount you wanted from a specific store where you needed to have the physical paper certificate. Then they went to branded cards being sold everywhere with financial controls that are, well, lacking .

CostCo has this solved by not having the gift cards out. You take a cardboard cutout, pay, then they go in the back cage and bring out a sealed envelope with the cards. I mean yes it can still get compromised by either an employee or someone in the supply chain from the gift card company to the store. But nothing is 100% theft proof.



It is truly the greed of the companies selling the gift cards they way they do that causes the problem. But of course the consumer is blamed for not inspecting it.

[CraigGrant-shin]

When I became a big boy my mother gave me cash in a card for my birthday and Christmas. I would tell her what I bought with it ( always something to do with hunting or fishing) and she was happy that she got me the right gift .

[joepangia]

If this is predominantly happening at the retail level it could be pretty much completely stopped by keeping the cards behind the counter under the control of the clerk as they do with other high end items. If a scammer comes in after 50 cards the clerk says “great how much would you like to have loaded on those 50 cards” collects the $5, 000 or whatever from the customer: loads the cards and hands them to the customer (as per usual).

[PasleyAviationPhotography]

You can buy digital gift cards if needed. The retailers for now at least can just start keeping the cards behind the counter with the cigarettes and bottles of booze over $40.

[Tomsonic]

I remember buying gift cards many years ago that had a scratch-off panel revealing a code that could be entered, and that said gift cards had no value until activated at the till. There was also a magnetic strip on the card that contained all the information needed for the cashier to activate it. In theory someone could go around with a skimmer, get all the details off the magnetic strips without even removing the cards from the shelf, and then use the card as soon as it was activated! I'm certainly not buying gift cards again after this story.