Gift Cards being sold for more than worth

Latest gift card fraud is sneaky

Gift Cards sold for more than they are worth

We have analyzed many approaches for gift card fraud on this site, we have discovered a new gift card fraud that we want to discuss. In the past most gift card fruad revolved around people copying down the serial number of the gift cards and then waiting to see when the gift cards are put into use.

The newest gift card fruad is being put to use in the gift card reseller market. There is a large market for people to sell and trade gift cards that they do not want. Assume someone gave you a gift card to target for $200 and all you really want is the cash. There are websites on which you can sell the gift cards (at a slight loss) for cash.

It is in this arena that the latest fraud appears and it isnt hard to guess how it is being employed. People are overstating the value on the gift cards. A person is offering to sell a Nordstrom gift card of $200 value for $150. Sound too good to be true? Most likely it is. The recipients are often finding that the cards are empty or contain far less value than advertised.

The challenge for policing this gift card fraud is that it is out of the hands of the merchants. I would propose that the marketplace would need to make some form of guarantee of the value - but this opens up to more fruad - doesn't it?

Gift cards are getting more and more popular and with this, more and more fraud will appear.