Gift Card Buyers BEWARE

[funnybone]

I just heard about this and there is truth to it

Well the crooks have found a way to rob you of your gift card balance. If you buy Gift Cards from a display rack that has various store cards you may become a victim of theft. Crooks are now jotting down the card numbers in the store and then wait a few days and call to see how much of a balance THEY have on the card. Once they find the card is "activated", and then they go online and start shopping. You may want to purchase your card from a customer service person, where they do not have the Gift Cards viewable to the public. More about this story can be found at http://www.snopes.com/fraud/sales/giftcard.asp.

[saserre]

Gift cards at some of the higher end stores have a scratch off which hids the number on it. I never knew why, but that makes total sense. Will make a point to ensure scratchy-thing is intact when I buy all of mine for the holidays.

[donleyk]

Gift cards at some of the higher end stores have a scratch off which hids the number on it. I never knew why, but that makes total sense. Will make a point to ensure scratchy-thing is intact when I buy all of mine for the holidays.

Aha! I too wondered what was with that. Thanks for the info, both of you.

I had quite the start there while reading this but then realized that I bought mostly food gift cards. Whew. Our grocery double the gas points for GC purchases so it motivated me to get those purchases made.

[funnybone]

Gift cards at some of the higher end stores have a scratch off which hids the number on it. I never knew why, but that makes total sense. Will make a point to ensure scratchy-thing is intact when I buy all of mine for the holidays.

Thanks for the reminder. I forgot about that. I have a couple of Starbucks and WS cards and both had those.

[dreamer]

Right after I read this thread, DH came home with the Lowe's gift cards I'd asked him to buy. I asked him if the scratch off area was still covered, and he said, no, the cashier had had to scratch it off in order to charge it up with the amount he requested! Well after having read this thread, I was concerned... had DH call the manager to make sure cashier had followed protocol. Manager said this was standard procedure, Cashier did the right thing.
I bought a gift card at Lowe's only about a month or two ago, and don't recall the cashier scratching anything off, so maybe this is new. Have not seen it when getting any other gift cards either. But anyway, it appears that this is just standard at Lowe's now.
-dreamer

[funnybone]

Right after I read this thread, DH came home with the Lowe's gift cards I'd asked him to buy. I asked him if the scratch off area was still covered, and he said, no, the cashier had had to scratch it off in order to charge it up with the amount he requested! Well after having read this thread, I was concerned... had DH call the manager to make sure cashier had followed protocol. Manager said this was standard procedure, Cashier did the right thing.
I bought a gift card at Lowe's only about a month or two ago, and don't recall the cashier scratching anything off, so maybe this is new. Have not seen it when getting any other gift cards either. But anyway, it appears that this is just standard at Lowe's now.
-dreamer

I've never seen that done before. I only had to scratch off that part for Starbuck's when I registered the card online to be able to track balances or reload the card.

[Kristilyn1]

last time I bought a Walmart card, the cashier had to scratch off the number as well. Unless she was able to remember that number and write it down after I left......I'm thinking I'm okay.

Thanks for the warning though, it's a good one!

Kristi