Retail theft is sooo prevelant these days!!!

My husband says, "the person/thief, goes into a store, writes the number off the card down. Then they wait a month until they hope someone has purchased the card...then they try to use it."

I didn't know that...? I thought the card number was under a protective coating you had to scratch off. ....? No?

My husband earned a digital card from work, downloaded card to phone. We used it once to buy dinner supplies for Christmas $200 worth at Kroger. We kind of forgot about it for a month or so, when I checked the balance, it was all gone, except for $2.01. All spent at Playstation.com

Nicole, the card comes sealed. They wanted photos of front and back as all numbers mean something.

It just boggles my mind.

I have to wonder about these people who do this. Is it that easy that anyone can do it, or are very tech savvy? Are they poor, living on the fringe, or have a well off life style, due to all the stealing?

That so unfortunate, but I'm glad you were able to rectify things.

Now I'm wondering about FOAS's zero balance cards...?

Here's some more info:

https://www.consumeraffairs.com/news/a-new-twist-on-gift-card-scams-is-starting-to-haunt-consumers-042523.html

And here's an article from the Federal Trade Commission containing contact numbers for companies, etc.

https://consumer.ftc.gov/articles/avoiding-and-reporting-gift-card-scams#commonscams

Carol, hopefully, we are just in the beginning stages.

Thanks for the links.

We were given a $100 Visa gift card last year...it wasn't sealed in any way. ? We used it the day we got it...no problem. If not for your posting I was unaware of people ripping off gift cards.

I know for a fact....thiefs can't manage money. 😂 My recent experience with theives: My roofer stole about $24K from my insurance company on my homes being reroofed. My insurance companies claims adjuster said she was coaching him on how to get more money out of a claim(she was helping him & approving his made-up bills for roofs that had been completed months ago) He purchased electric Razor scooters for his two kids for Christmas ...when they have them ALL over town to rent for $5 an hour, drop off anywhere & GPS finds them.....WHY buy them? Then he bragged about ALL the other junk he purchased....spent it ALL! Thought it was cool! And now he's pennyless until he rips off another insurance claim.

Thanks for the warning. I used to buy these as gifts.

Eld - Curious, my Visa cards all had a scratch off or peel off, to expose the PIN or activation code or whatever it's called. Wondering if yours did, and if they were in tact or exposed before you opened it?

Yes, we experienced this. Gave a gift card to a needy friend and by the time she went to use it, the balance had been stripped.

Now I give people Amazon electronic gift cards, or go directly to a company's website to order an electronic version. Very easy and no theft issues.

From an article I read recently, thieves are getting more clever and devious. They now are stealing the cards without activating them. Then they are able to pull off the laminate, read the number and then re-laminate the card so it isn’t noticeable. They the return the card to a rack and wait a bit to spend the money. Eventually of course someone will purchase it and then find out, as did eld, that there is no remaining balance.

It will be a matter of time until most stores will lock up these cards so thieves canmot get to them.

Yes - the advice is to avoid cards from those big racks, or grab one from the back of the row, instead of the ones in front.

Food, it was completely sealed and hard to get out of the packaging. No numbers exposed.

Outside, hey they are locking up everyday merchandise, why not the gift cards?

I heard quite a bit about this this past Shopping Season. People were finding their gift cards to be devoid of value.

Vanilla Visa cards were the ones that people had trouble with in my area over the holidays. I would suspect insiders are doing it. I wonder where they come from? https://www.cbsnews.com/news/gift-card-vanilla-scam-lawsuit-draining-incomm/

Well, I won’t be buying them again any time soon. It’s sad.

Now I still have to keep up on getting my money back.

I’m sure there are multiple ways to scam people with gift cards. We seldom buy them anymore, except the occasional digital card we can do directly to someone. I’m seeing more of them behind the checkout counters in some places.

Update: Visa Vanilla is sending a replacement card. We will see how that goes!

Another reason why I never buy gift cards. Target has a gigantic rack at our store which would be easy pickings for a criminal.

I'm fascinated on how this all goes down. And, these criminals who do it?