In the past we have talked about the gift card scam which involves scanning the numbers on the backs of unsold cards and then periodically checking to see if the cards are active and then buying on them. I call this the Sneak and Wait approach. Click here to read more on this approach.
Today we are taking a look at different way people are abusing gift cards and making money in non legal ways involving them. I call this approach the "let me sell you 10 for the price of 20" scam. If you google "trade gift cards" or anything similar you will be surprised at how many sites exist now as marketplaces for buying and selling gift cards. The practice makes sense. 99% of the time gift cards are not redeemable for cash so if you are gifted a card to a merchant you are not interested in you have, in the past, been out of luck.
These days you can visit one of the gift card exchange sites and either sell your gift card (usually for slighlty less than the card value) or trade it for a gift card you are more interested in. This is where the scam comes into play. It is not a very tech-savvy scam yet it is widespread and it preys on the anonymity of online exchanges and the difficulty of tracking someone down once a trade or sale has occurred.
The scam is simply the overstating of the value of the gift card. Like I said, simple but unfortunately effective. A quick example: you want to buy an iTunes gift card for your brother for his birthday. Rather than paying $50 for a $50 iTunes card via apple you choose to buy the same $50 card for $39 on a gift card exchange site. The card comes, you gift it with great intentions and your brother later thanks you for the $3 iTunes gift card. Ouch.
How to avoid? First and obvious, avoid the exchanges. Two, perhaps there is a screen grab approach you can force the seller to utilize on the merchant site's "check balance" page. Then again, that solution is ripe with loopholes. In the end I suggest, staying away for now from discounted gift cards. Please let me know if you have an idea that can avoid this problem and make the exchanges 'safe'.
Added on 02/07/2009
No comments have been added yet to this post.
Post a comment - top
Please register to leave a comment.
