![]() ![]() The FTC also recommends doing a thorough check of the gift card before officially purchasing it. ![]() The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has three major tips for consumers who are thinking of purchasing gift cards – either for the holidays or beyond.įor starters, buy from stores that you trust, and avoid any auction sites or websites that look misleading. How can you go about safely buying gift cards and ensuring the recipient receives all of the promised funds?Īccording to Venezia, she recommends that consumers either stick to cash, or that gift cards are used as soon as possible after opening. ![]() With the holidays right around the corner, it’s prime time for consumers to buy gift cards. However, when they do, the gift card has been fully wiped clean of funds. Scammers are able to get the information they need from the outside of the package, and then leave the wholly intact gift card for someone to purchase. This has been easy to accomplish because the packaging of the gift cards looks pristine. They all circled back to what Venezia learned: scammers go into stores, take pictures of the activation information on the back of the gift card, and then leave the gift card on the rack. Half of them had been completely depleted of funds before the recipients had been given them.Īfter sharing his experience on social media, Vinci learned that plenty of others had similar stories. Similar stories have emerged as recently as a few weeks ago, while others have been circulating for months.īack in May 2022, Tom Vinci in North Carolina bought six $100 Visa gift cards for family members. Venezia isn’t the only person who’s been scammed thieves robbing Visa Vanilla gift cards. With the serial number, it’s easy to get the rest of the gift card information, without the recipient of the gift card ever knowing – or using the gift card. While InComm was quick to dismiss her issue, Venezia learned that scammers have been known to pull the serial number off the packaging of gift cards and use that to spend the money that was pre-loaded onto them. Venezia said she explained that was impossible – the card had been in her possession since she received it, and it hadn’t been removed from the packaging. The hotel informed her that the card had a $0.00 balance.Īfter reaching out to InComm Financial Services, the company that owns Vanilla Gift Cards, Venezia learned that the card had been wiped clean over a year ago, and according to their report, the card was present at the time of the purchase. However, when she handed the freshly sealed, never-been-used gift card to the clerk at the hotel she was checking into, it was declined. Venezia had received a $500 gift card from her mother last year and was planning to save it for a recent trip she had planned. Renee Venezia, a woman living in Irvine, California, told her story about losing funds on her Vanilla Visa gift card to ABC News. If you're asked for payment in gift cards, more than likely it's a scam.Gift cards are always a holiday gift favorite but some consumers purchasing Vanilla Visa cards have run into the Grinch. Many retailers are also working to stop the fraud by limiting the amount of gift cards you can buy at one time, and also having employees ask to make sure you buying the gift cards aren't part of a scam. Remember, gift cards are meant for gifts, not criminals. "They can convert it into cash, cryptocurrency, they can use these gift cards to move money around and stay outside the traditional banking system where otherwise, these numbers might show a red flag," Stokes said. The research is a part of a three-year effort launched Friday to stop gift cards from being used as a tool for criminals to steal money.Īs soon as victims read the numbers off the back of the card, the money is gone. New research from the AARP Fraud Watch Network shows 1 in 3 adults said they or someone they know has been asked to purchase a gift card to pay a bill or some other obligation. "They buy and sell lead lists, they give bonuses when employees on the desk make a scam," Stokes said.
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