‘Zero-value’ gift cards also common
The AARP Fraud Watch Network, in collaboration with the University of Chicago-based AmeriSpeak Omnibus survey, polled 2,179 people age 18 and older in January and February to gauge consumer experiences with two types of gift card fraud: payment scams and “zero-value” gift cards, when a consumer gives or receives a card that turns out to have no funds on it.
About a quarter of those polled said they had encountered the second type, which typically involves crooks tampering with cards on store shelves to obtain the numbers on the back, allowing them to drain the cash consumers load on them at point of purchase.
While some zero-value episodes could be due to store errors or people forgetting they’ve already used a card, “the fact that 1 in 4 consumers have experienced giving or receiving a card with no value on it points to criminal activity,” Stokes said. The average loss in such cases was $140, the survey found.
Eighty-four percent of those who received an empty gift card took steps to try and resolve the issue, such as calling the phone number or visiting the website listed on the card or talking to a manager at a store where they tried to redeem it, but more than half were told they could not get a refund or credit.
Younger adults targeted more
The survey found an age disparity…
