However, it is important to use the gift cards right away to take advantage of this guarantee.Ĭustomers who would like to contact Customer Service with any questions, concerns, or complaints can do so by phone at 80 or by email at Reputation This Buyer Protection guarantees to their customers that any card purchased from their website will be valid at the retailer for the dollar amount specified on your order for 45 days after you receive your card. Their website states that “safeguarding and protecting our customers is our top priority” and that they use state-of-the-art technology to virtually eliminate any problems that may arise with the kind of gift card exchange their website facilitates. The name of the retailer, the value of the card, the discount you will be receiving, and the amount you are being asked to pay will be clearly displayed before you decide to finalize your purchase.Ĭ does not say that they offer a traditional Refund Policy, but they do offer something they call “45 Day Buyer Protection”. When you go to buy a gift card, you will search through their available cards by brand or by value of the card. Sellers can go to their website and fill out an information sheet and receive a quote before choosing to sell their card to this website. That being said, the website does promise to provide their gift card Sellers with up to 92% of the value of their gift card. “These crimes are largely under-reported, so we encourage everyone to report if this happens to you,” Grounds said.There is no real way to quote a price range for the cards sold on this website, as the prices will depend on the money that is placed on the card by the original gift giver. Okrent said after it happened to her, she wants to help others be more aware.
You should install some type of antivirus software,” he said. “You should always make sure to keep your computer up to date. He said scams are at their peak this time of year. “A big red flag would be if somebody asks you to pay in gift cards, don't do it,” Evans, an assistant teaching professor of computer science at the University of Denver, said. No matter the scam, cybersecurity expert Nathan Evans said there are some ways people can protect themselves. “The common scams you might see going around right now are grandparent-grandchild scams, where someone contacts you and says that your child or grandchild is in trouble, and you need to use gift cards to solve that problem. “It really just does feel horrible to know that I was taken in that way,” Okrent said. She lost $500, however, others in her community lost $17,000 or more from a similar scam. At that point, my husband came in and was like, 'What's going on?' and we realized I’d been hacked.” “I got a card, I gave them the number, took a picture and got home. “It needed to be a gift card, and again, these were a lot of red flags in hindsight,” she explained. She called the number provided and they told her to purchase some gift cards and stay on the phone while she did. “l read the text and recognized it said Amazon and, you know, there's been a fraudulent charge for a phone, an $800 phone," Okrent said. “It really felt like an out-of-body experience,” Alissa Okrent said. From 2018 to 2020, people reported losing a total of more than $245 million. The Federal Trade Commission said giving a scammer the PUN numbers off the back of a gift card is the number one way people report losing money. That’s coupled with the supply chain shortage we are seeing as well,” she said. “We anticipate a 27 percent increase in gift card scams and that happens during the gift card season. “Scam Spotter is a platform we developed to help educate consumers on the most prevalent scams that are happening right now,” Grounds said.Īnd right now, she said gift card scams top a lot of lists. They are getting more personal in their approach, they are doing their research online, learning more about who your friends and family members are so they can create a sense of fear and immediate action,” Jenny Grounds, the chief marketing officer of the Cybercrime Support Network, said. “Scammers have become incredibly sophisticated in their attempts. Around the holidays, it’s easy to fall victim to a scam while shopping, paying for gifts, or waiting for packages.