Mark Moore got a $50 Visa gift card for his birthday. He's a 49-year-old math teacher, and he knew what to buy. Food and treats for his two Chihuahuas. First he wanted to check the balance. That one careful step is what cost him.
He went online, found a site that looked like his card's, and entered the number and the three-digit code. An error popped up. So he typed it all in again, and then once more. The site belonged to scammers who had copied the real one. Every try gave them his card's details. Jennifer Williams tells his story in Thursday's Journal.
Moore found out at a pet store in Pearland, Texas, near his home. “The card was denied,” he recalled. Only $9 was left. Getting his money back took two months, though he did get it. These days he calls the toll-free number on a card to check it. Or he skips the check and heads straight to the store.
Why the fakes work
Here's how the trick works. You search for the card's balance page. The search sends you to a fake page instead of the web address printed with the card. It asks for the number and PIN, just as the real one would. Then the balance is gone. Police and industry officials say thieves moved online after stores cracked down on theft inside the building. “They can hide behind a computer,” said Lisa Rufolo, who runs the Retail Industry Leaders Association's anti-crime foundation. Shoppers and stores lose at least $1 billion a year to gift-card fraud of all kinds. That's the estimate of Dariush Vollenweider, a Homeland Security Investigations agent who helps lead Project Red Hook. Authorities don't know how much of that comes from fake sites.
Target, Apple, Home Depot and Valve are updating packaging and retraining clerks. Target redesigned its gift-card program in 2024 to stop tampering. It tells shoppers to check balances on one website only. Valve, the gaming company, is going the furthest. It's getting rid of physical Steam gift cards, likely by the end of this year. The timing matters. Gift cards are among the most popular holiday presents, and the season is close.
Our read
This is Consumer Protection, M11, and it's the simplest kind. A gift card is cash with no name on it. Whoever holds the number and PIN can spend the money. Getting it back is slow, and it isn't a sure thing. Moore got his back, and it still took two months. The best defense is to never type the numbers anywhere the card itself didn't send you. Flip the card over. Use the phone number printed there, or type the printed web address into the browser yourself. A search result is a stranger pointing at a door.
Here's the one check for this week. Count the gift cards in your wallet, in your drawer and on your December shopping list. For each one, find the balance phone number or web address printed on the card, and use only that. Spend the balances soon. A card in a drawer is money doing nothing. If you buy cards as gifts, look for packaging that's been peeled or re-glued. Fixing the roof is cheap on a dry day. We're glad to walk through your family's cards and accounts in a review.