Gift cards are convenient to send to friends and family as presents. But 7 Investigates found some gift cards are coming up empty.
Laura Impemba got a $300 gift card from friends to help cheer her and her family up after the death of a loved one.
“We were really touched,” Laura said.
But when she tried to use it–
“There was nothing on the gift card,” she said.
How could this happen? Fraud experts say crafty crooks are targeting gift cards at stores. They remove the cards from their packaging to get to the gift code number.
“They copy down the card numbers, and put it back together and then they take those cards and they put them back in the stores,” Martha Weaver, Co-Chair of the Fraud and Mitigation Task Force for the Retail Gift Card Association, said.
When customers buy the compromised card and try to use it – they come up with a zero balance.
“It’s one of those scourges that doesn’t seem to go away, it just evolves,” Weaver said.
Laura discovered her gift card was used in a supermarket weeks before she opened it.
“Which blew our minds because it had never left our possession,” Laura said.
She tried to get the company to refund her $300.
“I wasn’t able to get anywhere with phone calls I had made. It was really disheartening,” she said.
After we got involved, she got her money back.
“I’m glad it’s over,” Laura said.
If you like to send gift cards, the Retail Gift Card Association says to carefully inspect the gift card packaging for tampering before you purchase it. There are several other ways you can protect yourself. Click here for more info.
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