SCAMMERS are taking advantage of gift cards and draining funds from them before the true recipient gets a chance to use them. 

In gift card scams, people will buy them for loved ones, but scammers will have already gotten to them to ensure they get the money put on them.

This scam is showing up everywhere across the nation and in Canada. 

People are being warned to be wary of the gift cards they purchase and to keep receipts just in case. 

Terry Seguin, senior constable with the LaSalle Police Service in Ontario, said his family member bought tons of gift cards yet each of them was left fundless. 

“My own family member was a victim of purchasing everybody gift cards — I was a recipient of one of them — and there was nothing on the card,” Seguin told Edmonton Journal. 

It is hard to track down the scammer who took the money so this leaves either the purchaser or the store to be out the cash when the scam occurs. 

In Seguin’s case, the store was able to get the money back to the purchaser for the empty gift cards.

“Luckily, the cards were reimbursed, but somebody is out of money whether it’s the store who sold the card or the merchant who supplied it,” Seguin said.

“So, there’s a fraud or a theft of these funds somewhere along the lines.”

HOW DOES IT WORK?

Inactivated gift cards are taken from a store before anyone has purchased them, and the codes on the card are taken down by the scammer. 

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The scammer will then return the cards to the display rack for someone to actually buy them.

But once the money is on the card, the scammer will activate it with the codes they have before the recipient does. 

There are also multiple ways these scams are being done.

Some of the scammers even have software that will notify them when money has been put on the gift cards.

Others will completely replace the barcode with a new one so that when it is scanned the money goes right into their accounts or they will buy new grey stickers to put over the activation code after they retrieve it.  

The Ottawa Police Service Fraud Unit explained that it may be weeks before anyone knows that the scam has occurred because you won’t know until you try to use the card.

“It may be weeks before the gift card is turned over to the intended recipient, then weeks or months more before the card is finally used and the fraud discovered,” it said, per Edmonton Journal. 

ANOTHER VICTIM

Another victim of the scam bought multiple gift cards for their grandkids but they ended up being empty as well. 

“My wife bought 10 $50 gift cards and, at the time, I bought three $50 gift cards,” Robert Shaffer from Cleveland, Ohio, explained to local NBC affiliate WTHR.

“Our daughter in Cleveland called and said Robbie, who’s the oldest grandson in Cleveland, went through the checkout counter and said the card didn’t work.

“He came back and said the two cards in question show that they’ve been used online. How could they be used online when they sat at our house and they got sent to Cleveland? How did they get used?”

Pennsylvania Attorney General Michelle Henry released a warning that informed people to be careful when purchasing gift cards. 

“The holidays present additional opportunities for scammers to deceive and steal from consumers who choose gift cards as presents for loved ones,” Henry said. 

“Be sure to take a careful look at the cards you purchase and keep your receipts, just in case.”