Gift card scams come with new twists, law officers warn
HOUSTON - Planning to buy gift cards for your loved ones this holiday season? They may not be the gift that keeps on giving.
Law officers across the country are warning about new twists in gift card scams.
We've heard about gift card cloning, when scammers copy the serial numbers on the back of gift cards in stores, then drain them once money is loaded onto them.
But now police say scammers have taken it to a whole new level.
"There is a scratch tab at the top of the card that you scratch away that has a code on it. That code is what gives you access to that money," explains Sgt. Barry Duggan with the Pinole Police Department in California in what has become a viral video warning on social media.
He explains in the video that scammers first steal the gift cards out of stores.
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Then, as he demonstrates with a gift card, he says, "They heat up these envelopes to where they can open them as carefully as they can, remove the card, and actually cut the top of the card off. They cut the top. Remember this is the code that gives you access to the money to the person you give the card to. They take the bottom half of the card, put it in the bottom half of the envelope, and just like that, you have a brand new gift card you think you're getting for your person for Christmas," said Duggan.
An Arizona retail theft task force seized 10,000 gift cards, all now worthless. They busted eight suspects, who they say bought guns, TVs, even Red Bull that they would turn around and sell to strip clubs.
"We seized more than 10,000 of these cloned gift cards in Arizona this week. But obviously, we know that’s just the tip of the iceberg," said Arizona Attorney General Kris Mays.
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And the FBI explains that sometimes after scammers scratch the foil off a card's code, they'll paint new foil back on.
"They’re empty. They scratch off the foil on it and write down those numbers and put them in a database. Then they actually are putting foil back on it and then going back to the store and putting it back on the shelf," said Jenna Sellitto with the FBI in Atlanta.
When purchasing a gift card, make sure the foil strip looks like it does on other new cards.
And Sgt. Dutton suggests, "Either feel for the card, it should be the same size as a credit card, or with the permission of the store when you go up to purchase these, as yor purchasing them, remove them from these folders and actually take the card and make sure the whole card is there."
Keep receipts and take a photo of the numbers on the back of the card.
If you discover your card has been drained, report it to the gift card company right away.
They can freeze the card. If the scammer hasn't drained it, victims may be able to get their money back.