Tips To Avoid Gift Card Scams This Holiday Season

Gift cards have become extremely popular over the years. They're convenient, they always fit, and you never have to worry about returns. Everyone loves and appreciates receiving gift cards. And for the buyer, it's also a quick and easy last minute gift when you have no time during the busy holiday season. You can use them for restauants, coffee, clothes, books, and more. But that's not to say that there aren't issues with gift cards. As they rise in popularity, there comes the issue of scams.

As more and more people buy and use gift cards for the holidays, the rise in scams is also becoming a problem. Just recently in Braintree, two women were arrested for being involved in a scamming ring. They were found with over 4,600 gift cards. They would steal the cards, record the card info, repackage them, and return them to the shelves. Then, once purchased, loaded and activated, they would be able to take the card info and spend the money on it before the recipient did. And this is just one of the many types of gift card scams out there.

There are imposters demanding gift cards over the phone, charities & fundraiser scams using gift cards, and even scammers on dating sites and apps asking for gift cards. So what can you do?

Be careful when purchasing gift cards in stores. Make sure that make sure no seals have been tampered with and it doesn’t look like it’s been bent or manipulated.

To avoid charity gift card scams, be sure to only donate to legitimate charities, and never pay with gift cards. You can check out the legitimacy of charities by going to CharityNavigator.or, Wise Giving Alliance, or CharityWatch.org.

As far as dating scams, according to the FBI, Americans lost over $735 million dollars because of romance scams in 2022. To avoid becoming a statistic, never send money to someone you haven't met in person. Also, know the warning signs of an online scammers. This includes people who use stolen photos, quickly confess their love, and you've never even spoken to them on the phone,

You can find a more in-depth list of scams and how to avoid them HERE.

Gift cards do make great gifts, but just be sure to be careful and do what you can to avoid falling victim to gift card holiday scams.

If you have any unspent gift cards, you’re not alone. There's a new report out that says that almost two-thirds of American consumers have at least one unspent gift card. And at least half of those are lost before the user gets to spend it. The report also said that there is as much as $21 BILLION dollars of unspent money in unused and lost gift cards.

I'm ashamed to say that I am definitely one of those people who haven't spend their gift cards. I have two right now in my purse! And whenever a do any decluttering, I always find one or two in a drawer somewhere. I know. I know.

The report, by Credit Summit, is based on a December 2022 survey of 1,200 consumers aged 16 and older. "Gift cards are extremely popular and almost everyone enjoys getting them. But many people leave them sitting in a drawer to redeem on a special occasion. Use them, don't save them," said Rebecca Stumpf, an editor with Credit Summit.

A separate study on gift card usage found the average amount on unused gift cards last year was $175 per person, up from $116 in 2021.

Made me wonder what the most popular gift cards are. These results are based on a study by WalletHub, and here are the top 10.