Gift Card Theft

Observant1

"Unfortunately, soaring sales are accompanied by gift card theft, an easy heist that carries little risk
of getting caught. Stealing money from gift cards has become so lucrative that foreign fraudsters
are now involved. U.S. law enforcement is focusing on criminal gangs in China that are targeting
the U.S. gift card market (more on that later)."

"'The minute you load money onto one of those cards, the crooks are notified, and they instantly drain it,
sometimes even before you leave the store,' said Amy Nofziger, director of fraud victim support
at the AARP Fraud Watch Network. 'Unfortunately, the theft may not be discovered for weeks
or even months after the purchase, when the recipient uses the card and it’s worthless.'"

https://www.checkbook.org/puget-sound-area/consumers-notebook/articles/Watch-Out-for-Worthless-Gift-Cards-7884

Comments: I wasn't aware that gift card theft was so prevalent or so lucrative for criminals.

Mark

"'The minute you load money onto one of those cards, the crooks are notified, and they instantly drain it, sometimes even before you leave the store,' said Amy Nofziger, director of fraud victim support at the AARP Fraud Watch Network."

Well that's comforting. How is it so easy to do?

Observant1

"The most common way thieves drain money from gift cards is by shoplifting them from supermarkets
and other retailers and then manipulating the package to steal the card information.
The compromised cards are then placed back in stores, and the stolen information
is added to a computer program that tracks the cards to see when they are activated."

hank

Observant1 said:

"The most common way thieves drain money from gift cards is by shoplifting them from supermarkets
and other retailers and then manipulating the package to steal the card information.
The compromised cards are then placed back in stores, and the stolen information
is added to a computer program that tracks the cards to see when they are activated."

Gift cards bought online from major sellers / resellers like Amazon or Walmart are probably quite safe. But the choices in denominational amount are quite limited if you want a bank card like Visa. I did want to gift a specific amount to a couple ($350) earlier in the year. I picked up a blank Visa card off the shelf at a Walgreens and the clerk transferred said sum electronically to the card. I saved every ounce of paperwork and the gift was mailed, received & acknowledged by recipients. However, as the linked article suggests, these types of cards off store shelves would be an easier target for hucksters than the more traditional type I mentioned earlier.
-

"How is it so easy to do?"

Good question.

Probably not that easy. But if I were going to try, I'd pull a blank card down from a store shelf and snap a photo of both sides with an iphone. Then I'd put the card back on the shelve. At home I'd dig deeper at the card company's website using whatever numerical code was on the card to see if I could scam the company into thinking I had physical possession. Most of these require the user to create a first-time PIN. So that might be one avenue to pursue. Also, there are probably some black market bar-code readers one could obtain to assist. Once I was granted computer access to the card, I'd use AI to continually monitor "existing balance" and send me an alert the moment the balance increased (from 0 to whatever a buyer had transferred in). I guess you could cash it out at an ATM (maybe wearing face mask) - but not sure how that part would work. Spending it at a retailer would seem too easy for law enforcement to trace back to me.