DULUTH, Minn. — It’s the holiday gift-buying season, and one gift that stands above the rest is a gift card. They have become one of the most popular gifts. But you may not realize that gift cards can be vulnerable to scammers.
The National Retail Federation says gift cards are among the most requested gifts.
Like most people, I appreciate getting a gift card as a present. But…Recently I was given a Target gift card at a charity event. …I took it home, scratched off the back, and called to find out the value. To my surprise, the system told me the value was zero dollars. It also said the card had been used about a month earlier in Montana.
I wondered how that could be. Well, it turned out this issue wasn’t as rare of an occurrence as I thought. The Capital One Shopping team says 23% of consumers have given or received gift cards with no funds on them.
Kevin Gooschalk is the founder and CEO of Arkose Labs, a cybersecurity company that works with both gift card and credit card companies to prevent or limit their losses. He says the attackers are using the latest technologies to get your money. Using computer programs that are available on the Dark web, attackers can run every combination possible.
Goochalk said, “What attackers can do is they basically guess the combinations of gift cards. But they can only do that after it’s been activated.”
That means once you purchase the card, the value on the card is now vulnerable to being stolen.
“The moment they purchased it, that combination was available for someone to actually try to guess every single combination. They just have a bot running that’s just constantly testing different combinations to try to find valid gift cards and they can go ahead and spend it,” said Gottschalk.
The Better Business Bureau is one place where consumers should report scams so that others can be made aware of the issues. The BBB in Wisconsin says to be careful with gift cards. Attackers move quickly when they figure out the card number.
1:34 As soon as that card is scanned at the register, they go ahead and deplete the funds on the card before it even be given as a gift. So when you’re purchasing gift cards make sure that you know who you’re buying them from, buy them from buy them from a legitimate retailer and check the packaging to be sure that it was not tampered with.
If you experience a situation like I did, contact the company and let them know. In my case, Target immediately sent a new, valid gift card.
Target issued a statement to FOX 21 which read in part:
“We are aware of the prevalence of gift card scams and take them very seriously… Our centralized cyber fraud teams help educate our team members about common scams.”
“Guests who believe they have been victims of fraud should contact our guest relations team.”
