It's safer to buy gift cards online or from behind a counter. Experts explain why.
“It’s up to the goodwill of the retailer,” said Adam Levin, a co-host of the podcast “” and a former director of consumer affairs for the state of New Jersey. He noted that without a gift card receipt, it can be particularly hard to prove that you were a victim of fraud because the retailer may say, “Well, how do we know that you didn’t just spend it somewhere and tear up the receipt?”Experts said if you can avoid buying the first gift card you see in the front of a store’s display rack.
Buying a gift card online from reputable retailers can also help you avoid physical tampering, experts said. Still, it will not guarantee you are fraud-free, either, if that online gift card’s database is ever breached. Make sure you do not see any wrinkles or tears on the gift card and double-check that the pin code is not exposed, Levin said.Stokes said to look at the gift card activation receipt and see if the number on the gift card matches the number on the receipt.
“If it sits at the bottom of your purse or in a drawer for months on end, it just gives the criminals that much more time to manipulate and take the dollars off,” Stokes said.Some retailers allow you to register your gift card and track the funds on it, Stokes said.consumers who reported losing money to fraud said they lost it through sharing the numbers on the backs of their cards, another common type of gift card scam.
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