Gift Card Fraud

I have been involved with professional training from a major retailer that described how thieves will photograph gift card data from cards before they are sold and then use that information to cheat the buyer of the gift card once it is activated.

This article discusses a very similar procedure:

http://www.nw3c.org/news/article/Fulltext/2013/11/28/department-store-gift-card-scam

An excerpt:
"Criminals steal gift cards from store racks before any money has been added to them and then use an electronic card reader/writer to copy the information from one gift card to another, making an identical copy. Then they take the card back to the store for unsuspecting customers to purchase. Once money is added to the card, the criminal can then go on a shopping spree with someone else’s money."


If "78 percent of retailers have been victims of gift-card fraud" how does that translate to customers? This article explains some of the issues facing retailers:

Read more: http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/229526#ixzz2oBjQjHex