Gift cards are a big part of the holiday season. We love giving and getting them. But thieves are also on the prowl for those cards. They're hoping to siphon off the cash you just put on one.
Sue Madland bought and sent some gift cards to a friend. She discovered someone had tampered with the cards when she spoke with him.
"He would call me and say the card doesn't work."
Madland checked the codes and discovered the funds were used far from her Tulsa County home.
"Somewhere in New Hampshire,” she said, “Or New York or Denver, Colorado.”
The cards drained. She discovered it could happen very quickly when she bought the next batch of gift cards. happened fast.
"I could open the card as soon as I got outside, and the card had already been used.”
Ted Rossman is a Senior Industry analyst with CreditCards.com.
He told the Problem Solvers, “One of the scams that sometimes happens is crooks will record gift card information like maybe they'll rifle through racks in the grocery store, and they're just waiting for somebody to load it up, and once money appears then sometimes, they can drain it."
So how much money did thieves drain from gift cards Sue purchased? She claims “at least $2,000.”
The National Retail Federation says gift cards are the most popular gift during the holiday season.
To protect your wallet when buying gift cards, Rossman advises, "Look for signs of tampering. Have pin numbers been scratched off? Or has the package been opened?
And don't forget to check the balance after you buy. if the cash is gone:
- report it to the store
- report it to your local police
- report it to the Federal Trade Commission
To make those reports, you'll need your receipt and the number that was on the card.
Now for some fast facts about gift cards.
- Almost half of all adults have one or more unused gift cards.
- The average value of unused gift cards is about $175 per person. That is up from $116 dollars per person last year.
- Creditcards.com did the math and found it adds up to about $21 billion in unused gift cards.
Ted Rossman advises instead of letting cards sit, use them as an inflation-busting strategy.
You can do this by either actually using them to make purchases or selling them.
Rossman said, "There are sites like CardCash and Raise and ClickCard, they don't give you full value. You'll probably get something like 70 or 80 percent of its worth, but it's something."
You can even re-gift the ones you don't want to help keep your holiday spending in check.
Contact the Problem Solvers:
- 918-748-1502
- problemsolvers@kjrh.com
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