Appears the Grinch is working overtime....

[highland145]

Victim warns 'card draining' scam affecting major retailers left her gift card useless: It 'shocked' me

Suzanne Gdovic warned "Fox & Friends First" viewers about the shady methods fraudsters are using to scam money from store gift cards after she lost $200.

www.foxnews.com

offered some advice for making gift card purchases going forward, telling viewers to photocopy the cards they buy and keep all receipts.

"When you do make that phone call… you need to be able to send them all of this information and be persistent and don't take no for an answer.

 

[Exterous]

"They had all the information. I loaded it, and when they have an elaborate scheme [they use] the computer with the coding to figure out when you put the money on the card"

What??

 

[lxskllr]

"They had all the information. I loaded it, and when they have an elaborate scheme [they use] the computer with the coding to figure out when you put the money on the card"

What??

I had trouble with the details also. My guess is they get the number of the card, and somehow watch it til it get loaded with money, and then grab it. Without knowing how cards are handled, it's hard to say exactly what happened.

 

[VirtualLarry]

GIFT CARDS ARE FEEL-GOOD BULLSHIT. THEY DON'T WORK EFFETIVELY / RELIABLY, AND EVERYONE KNOWS IT. sEND CASH IF YOU REALLY CARE.

 

[highland145]

vl IS GETTING A CARD.

 

[purbeast0]

GIFT CARDS ARE FEEL-GOOD BULLSHIT. THEY DON'T WORK EFFETIVELY / RELIABLY, AND EVERYONE KNOWS IT. sEND CASH IF YOU REALLY CARE.

If you can show me how my 8 year old can buy Robux with cash, I'm all ears.

 

[highland145]

He should have asked Santa.

 

[purbeast0]

He should have asked Santa.

Yeah and you know what Santa is giving him?

 

[VirtualLarry]

Ack. I forgot about Fobux. One of the biggest schemes of our time.

Why not mine it instead,?

Roblox Players Are Mining Crypto Just to Get Robux

The underground tools mine cryptocurrency and then automatically exchange that for Robux, Roblox's in-game currency.

www.vice.com

 

[KB]

These scams are actually quite old at this point. In this case they take the card home, scratch off the numbers, record them, then cover over the numbers again and return it to the shelf. Every day they test the numbers they recorded to see if money is on the card and then steal it. Other scams include replacing the barcode on the gift card with a copy of a barcode of their own card, so when money is put an affected gift card it really goes on theirs. I urge people not to buy gift-card or use them immediately. $21 billion in gift cards are unused and wasted.

Check your wallet: Nearly half of Americans have $21 billion in unused gift cards, survey finds

Still sitting on that gift card from your last birthday? You're not alone. Billions of dollars in credit is not being used, a new survey finds.

www.usatoday.com

 

[nakedfrog]

"They had all the information. I loaded it, and when they have an elaborate scheme [they use] the computer with the coding to figure out when you put the money on the card"

What??

Often gift cards will have a URL you can use to check the balance, could be referring to that?

 

[KB]

Often gift cards will have a URL you can use to check the balance, could be referring to that?

Yep. You can even automate checking the numbers so you know the minute it gets activated.