New gift card scam going on.

[Packard]

This hit the news the other day.

Apparently, people are buying gift cards with small amounts of money attached.  They then scrape off the covering strip and use the card.

This part amazes me:  They are able to re-constitute the covering strip convincingly.  They then put it back into the retail store sales rack.

When you buy the card and put, say $200.00 on it, they have it so that they are notified immediately that the money is now available.  They, having already harvested the authorization number, then use that card to make purchases. 

When the person who received the gift card goes to use it all, or most of the money has already been spent. 

I have devised my safety protocols based on that information. 

1. Always buy gift cards with a credit card.  If you pay by cash, the cashier can pocket the money and say that it is loaded.  It is much more difficult to do that with a credit card purchase.

2.  Always buy from the actual vendor.  I just bought a gift card from Olive Garden.  I could have bought it at my local supermarket, but doing so eliminates my opportunity to safeguard the purchase.

3.  After making the purchase, ask the cashier to please scan the card to show the amount on the card.  The cashier will show your receipt and say that is the amount.  But I say, “That is how much you put on the card; I want to see how much is actually on the card.”

If the amount is exactly what you asked for, you should be fine.  If the amount is slightly more than you paid for, it is a scammer’s card.  When they go to empty the card of its value, it is unlikely that they will be able to empty the exact amount.  A small amount will probably remain.  So if you bought $200.00 worth of card value, and the amount shown is $200.35 or more or less, but not exactly $200.00, it is almost certainly a scammer’s card that has already been used.

This is less likely at the store where it is going to be used.  Then it would have to be an “inside job”. 

But I could go to Walmart, purchase a gift card, empty it and then sneak it back on the rack rather easily.  They are watching for theft, not product replacement. 

Now we just have to wait for the next new scam.

 

[ChuckM]

Gift card fraud can happen like this without the scammers putting any money on the cards at all:

t-card-scam

And to check the validity: "If the numbers do not match, there is a chance a fake barcode on the gift card was scanned."

Here's another easy way, if available, to avoid the scam: Only buy gift cards that are kept under lock and key by the merchant. Some retailers here keep the gift cards in the Customer Service Center or cashiers/tills.

 

[rmhinden]

An even better way to avoid gift card scam.  Don't buy gift cards in the first place.

I have always assumed the the whole business of gift cards is a scam.  People put money on them, give them as a gift, and the recipient don't use all of the money.  They buy something less than the gift amount and don't go through the trouble of transferring the rest of the balance elsewhere.  Or forget about it.  Or loose the card.

Bob

p.s. The few times I have received a gift card, I transfer the balance to my Amazon account and toss the card.  Amazon makes it very easy to do this. 

 

[Mini Me]

Gift cards get stolen from the mail or mail boxes all the time.

 

[Crazyraceguy]

An even better way to avoid gift card scam.  Don't buy gift cards in the first place.

I have always assumed the the whole business of gift cards is a scam.  People put money on them, give them as a gift, and the recipient don't use all of the money.  They buy something less than the gift amount and don't go through the trouble of transferring the rest of the balance elsewhere.  Or forget about it.  Or loose the card.

Bob

p.s. The few times I have received a gift card, I transfer the balance to my Amazon account and toss the card.  Amazon makes it very easy to do this.

First of all, I didn't even know it was possible to transfer the balance to your Amazon account, That's great, thank you. Though it makes sense. They are constantly making digital transfers easier, lulling us into a cashless society

Second, I completely agree that gift cards are a scam, even in the purely legitimate form.
As you said, many are not fully depleted, and the original seller got all of your money when you bought it. This is pure profit to them.  The other place where they get ahead on this is with the people who do buy something that costs more than the card's value. Yes, they spend all of the money on the card, but they also bought a more expensive product, increasing the total sale. It's a win-win for the retailer, either way.
Gift cards also used to have fees applied to the balance, so the value decreased over time, some also would expire, even though there was still money on them. I think this may have been addressed by the government though? at least partly. I don't know the specifics anymore, but both of these rip-offs existed at one time. 

 

[ChuckM]

In the old days, gift cards had expiry dates, but such practice has been banned in many places including Canada. One merchant even honored its expired cards for several years after the passing of the laws (we found this out when we tried to use an expired card in a purchase and were told we should use up the balance asap.)

My family have received various gift cards, but we have bought mostly cards issued by these major merchants: MacDonald's, Starbucks, Tim Hortons, Roots, Home Depot, Lowe's and Lee Valley. You might wonder why we'd use cash to buy gift cards for ourselves. Four words: Earned points or Discounts.

We can save money and/or earn points in certain loyalty programs when we spend money on some of the gift cards (we buy them with our credit cards). For example, you can save $150 on a LVT $1,000 gift card if you buy one during its Cyber Monday Event.

[attachimg=1]

[attachimg=2]

Whenever possible, I only pass out digital gift cards without any mailing involved or hand them out in person.

By the way, I save and reuse the gift cards as they have tons of uses in the shop including as shims or adjustable spacers.

 

[ChuckM]

Snip.
p.s. The few times I have received a gift card, I transfer the balance to my Amazon account and toss the card.  Amazon makes it very easy to do this.

Is this just an Amazon.com thing?

Amazon.ca doesn't even allow us to use its gift card to buy a third-party gift card (new policy since September (?)):https://www.amazon.ca/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=G7KXB4EYEHXZRUMA

 

[Crazyraceguy]

They make pretty good glue spreaders too [member=57948]ChuckS[/member]

I know a lady who buys Home Depot cards at a grocery chain (common to this area) every time she needs to buy something from the Orange store. This gets her lots of gas discount points.

 

[ChuckM]

Yes as glue spreaders, too. I made some of them with serrated edges using a pair of craft scissors:

[attachimg=1]

 

[rvieceli]

I have a friend that does the buy gift cards to get fuel points and usually gets gas for $1 less that the pump price.

The cards also make excellent windshield frost scrapers (not so great on actual ice) they are flexible enough to conform to the windshield curve and get a better clearing than with the regular scraper.

Ron

 

[Packard]

I was not getting enough cards to keep up with my scraping demand, so I bought 200 plastic razor blades.  But the cards are better—easier to use ( no holder needed) and the last longer.  Each card has four usable edges.

Amazon has 100 credit card blanks for $9.99.  That is 400 usable edges.  I’d have to look it up, but that sounds like it is cheaper than the resin blades.