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Crust First posted:I've seen people trying to blame supermarkets for their parents getting tricked into buying gift cards to send to scammers, and it's always "my mother went to dozens of stores over and over every day for weeks, why didn't any of them stop her?" and I don't know what people think the stores could do. Not even touching on how the scammers coach them to say all the right things, and how often people who try to help get yelled at or ignored, what actual steps could they take to prevent this? I guess they could require your license or passport info for gift cards like you were buying a meth precursor? Tied to some federal database? Seems unlikely. If it was just an occasional one-off thing I would agree with you, but there are hundreds of thousands of people getting scammed for thousands of dollars each via gift card purchases every year. The system is broken in a way that is loving over vulnerable people. This FTC report is from 2021. Despite acknowledging that the statistics they have are very much only a partial accounting it backs up when anyone who pays attention to scams will kind of intuitively notice: gift cards are a major way that scammers extract money from victims, and it is only a particular subset of gift cards that are valuable to scammers (in 2021 Target, Google, Apple, eBay, and Walmart) purchased at certain locations (Target, Walmart, Best Buy, CVS, Walgreens). Those are all companies which are more than capable of devising systems that would protect gift cards buyers or at least make it harder for victims to run up losses in the thousands. They don't because they don't have to and profit from not doing it.
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Nov 12, 2025 14:52
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its weird that this system where retailers receive millions of extra dollars a year hasn't been patched up, huh wonder why that could be
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Nov 12, 2025 14:56
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Shifty Pony posted:If it was just an occasional one-off thing I would agree with you, but there are hundreds of thousands of people getting scammed for thousands of dollars each via gift card purchases every year. The system is broken in a way that is loving over vulnerable people. regulation labeling gift cards a money transmission business and subjecting them to AML scrutiny would clear most of this right up but we're trying to backtrack that for real banks now so 
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Nov 12, 2025 18:20
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Giftcards should be outlawed along with cryptocurrency.
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Nov 12, 2025 18:21
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Salt Fish posted:Giftcards should be outlawed along with cryptocurrency. i couldn't figure out how to phrase this earlier without sounding like a dick, but what in all seriousness would be lost by getting rid of them? Are there legitimate uses for them other than lazy gifts? I knew a guy who for a while played wow but didn't have a cc, and i think he bought game time via steam gift cards. a pretty edge case.
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Nov 12, 2025 20:22
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CommonShore posted:i couldn't figure out how to phrase this earlier without sounding like a dick, but what in all seriousness would be lost by getting rid of them? We're at a point now in our inexorable march toward a "cashless economy" that people without bank accounts need to pay a premium to convert their cash into a single-use credit card in order to do things like ride the bus in Phoenix. You also can't ride some busses out of Boston-Logan without a credit card. They helpfully provided a credit card vending kiosk next to the bus terminal, though! (I'm told this is a 'private bus" though which just  )
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Nov 12, 2025 20:42
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What bus are you talking about at Logan?
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Nov 12, 2025 20:52
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CommonShore posted:i couldn't figure out how to phrase this earlier without sounding like a dick, but what in all seriousness would be lost by getting rid of them? Are there legitimate uses for them other than lazy gifts? I don’t haaaaate them because it’s an excuse to get something I want for myself rather than the money get used for something serious/get a gift I don’t care for. And I’d much rather the card be bought from Costco or something similar at a discount so everyone kinda wins.
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Nov 12, 2025 21:09
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I can't hate on them - there was a chunk of time in the 00s where Christmas and birthday shopping for all my young nieces and nephews and cousins was incredibly simple - all they wanted was iTunes gift cards and more iTunes gift cards.
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Nov 12, 2025 21:13
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FMguru posted:I can't hate on them - there was a chunk of time in the 00s where Christmas and birthday shopping for all my young nieces and nephews and cousins was incredibly simple - all they wanted was iTunes gift cards and more iTunes gift cards. Did you ever meet these "nieces", "nephews", and "cousins" in person  It's an interesting question though. It's almost inadvisable to buy cards at all anymore because of the prevalence of re-sealing scams that steal the balance the instant it is activated. But it can be difficult to buy the exact right thing for someone as a gift, but giving cash fails to target it as a gift... Tagra fucked around with this message at 22:55 on Nov 12, 2025 |
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Nov 12, 2025 22:53
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FMguru posted:I can't hate on them - there was a chunk of time in the 00s where Christmas and birthday shopping for all my young nieces and nephews and cousins was incredibly simple - all they wanted was iTunes gift cards and more iTunes gift cards. You were getting scammed
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Nov 12, 2025 22:55
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Tagra posted:It's an interesting question though. It's almost inadvisable to buy cards at all anymore because of the prevalence of re-sealing scams that steal the balance the instant it is activated. How does this work? What makes it not happen to normal credit or debit cards?
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Nov 12, 2025 22:59
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Got this message on the EYE GEE today. As soon as I saw "greetings wesley willis I am writing..............." in the preview part before I actually saw the message I was like "yup, scam" Name changed to protect the goon. quote:Greetings, wesley willis wesleywillis fucked around with this message at 13:41 on Nov 13, 2025 |
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Nov 13, 2025 00:49
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FrumpleOrz posted:How does this work? What makes it not happen to normal credit or debit cards? Scammers steal unactivated cards, get the numbers from them, seal them back up, and plant them back on the shelf. They have some kind of script that checks the balance regularly. You buy the card and load money onto it. Their script lets them know there's a balance on the card and they go spend the money. There have been vulnerabilities where anybody could get the "secret" components of the card from its barcode (which has to be visible so the register can load it up). That made it absolutely trivial for a thief to just snap photos of barcodes. Even without those vulnerabilities, they can still steal the cards (retailers don't care much if people shoplift worthless unactivated cards), scrape them, and seal them back up. wesleywillis posted:Got this message on the EYE GEE today. You missed one of the name mentions. Kind of an interesting pitch that tries to split the difference between "we're in this together and getting away with it, so keep it secret" and "this is all above-board, don't worry." Space Gopher fucked around with this message at 02:22 on Nov 13, 2025 |
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Nov 13, 2025 02:20
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Aren't gift cards themselves also a bit scammy? It's pure profit to the retailers if they're lost, unredeemed, or expired (if allowed by state law). And it's funny to me that a gift card to a book store is seen as "Here, buy a book of your choice!" rather than "Here's some money that is useless almost everywhere" while giving someone money directly is seen as a lazier gift.
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Nov 13, 2025 02:35
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ponzicar posted:Aren't gift cards themselves also a bit scammy? It's pure profit to the retailers if they're lost, unredeemed, or expired (if allowed by state law). And it's funny to me that a gift card to a book store is seen as "Here, buy a book of your choice!" rather than "Here's some money that is useless almost everywhere" while giving someone money directly is seen as a lazier gift. That unused portion is called "breakage" in my area of business (telecom/calling cards/etc). I assume it's somthing similar for gift cards. It's an average percentage that is well known and relied upon.
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Nov 13, 2025 02:40
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KYOON GRIFFEY JR posted:What bus are you talking about at Logan? Beats me, I'm not from around that area. There was the silver line which was free and took 40 minutes and a walk to get me to Boston Commons, and then there was some other bus that cost money and took 20 minutes. I took the silver line after a friend from the area suggested I take the silvel line. But in looking up how to get there, the most obvious choice was the commercial bus that only took credit cards.
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Nov 13, 2025 02:46
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ponzicar posted:Aren't gift cards themselves also a bit scammy? It's pure profit to the retailers if they're lost, unredeemed, or expired (if allowed by state law). And it's funny to me that a gift card to a book store is seen as "Here, buy a book of your choice!" rather than "Here's some money that is useless almost everywhere" while giving someone money directly is seen as a lazier gift. Way back in the day my company stats showed at one point 25% of our sold vouchers were never coming back. We did everything to make them more attractive to customers, removing expiration dates, monthly random prize drawers etc.
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Nov 13, 2025 07:30
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We use points to purchase gift cards for family as Christmas presents and we can check the balances on them through the site we use. I’d say about 25% of our family never uses them, and it’s boring general stuff like Amazon, Chapters, and Walmart
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Nov 13, 2025 09:23
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I remember getting an American Express gift card for Christmas one year worth $50. When I went to use it, the balance was actually $47.50 because they automatically deducted a service charge from the balance.
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Nov 13, 2025 13:13
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Cat Army
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Space Gopher posted:You missed one of the name mentions. Oh yeah, missed that one, but it ain't my name so gently caress it.
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Nov 13, 2025 13:40
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I redeemed some points on a site I was doing surveys on to get a gift card. It was a Visa gift card so not for any specific site and was for $125. I forgot about it for about 8 months until I redeemed points again and I was going to buy something big with both cards. The first one had a $0 balance. Looking at the gift card site to see activity, they closed the card after 6 months. This was all in the fine print of course so there was nothing for me to do about it. The survey company was no help either as i should have read the terms when opting for that cash out option. From then on whenever I did a cash out to GC I immediately went to Amazon and used the GC to load credit into my Amazon account.
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Nov 13, 2025 13:48
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The problem I always run into with gift cards is you end up with some fraction of the amount left that isn't enough to buy anything and there's no way to just get money for it. Apparently in California and Oregon once the gift card value gets below like 10 bucks or so the issuer is required to allow you to cash out the remaining balance on request.
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Nov 13, 2025 16:37
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Shifty Pony posted:
commies
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Nov 13, 2025 17:49
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Shifty Pony posted:The problem I always run into with gift cards is you end up with some fraction of the amount left that isn't enough to buy anything and there's no way to just get money for it. In the past I've used that odd balance to buy an Amazon gift card for the exact amount which you can easily apply to the next purchase. I did a similar move today with a couple of online gift cards.
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Nov 13, 2025 21:08
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StormDrain posted:In the past I've used that odd balance to buy an Amazon gift card for the exact amount which you can easily apply to the next purchase. I did a similar move today with a couple of online gift cards. During the Pandemic, my job started giving us gift cards to show how much they appreciated us coming into the office. Which is all fine, except they picked the worst brand cards (Vanilla, I think) which couldn't be uploaded to Amazon. But otherwise, turning your gift cards into Bezos bucks is a pro move. Trying to pay for anything IRL with a gift card feels weird, but pulling out a deck of gift cards makes you look sketchy.
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Nov 13, 2025 21:30
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I have bad news about those gift cards as bonuses.
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Nov 14, 2025 03:17
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Discendo Vox posted:I have bad news about those gift cards as bonuses. Is it that they get taxed like regular earnings? Because if so that's not bad news, it's good news that the gift cards are as good as money so get taxed like it!
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Nov 15, 2025 13:20
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Fil5000 posted:Is it that they get taxed like regular earnings? Because if so that's not bad news, it's good news that the gift cards are as good as money so get taxed like it! They sure do which is why I've always refused them from work unless it's immediately convertible to Amazon or similar. And made drat sure the people who came up with the idea of the gift cards knew. Most of them have been 100% clueless on this, so it's incompetence rather than malice.
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Nov 15, 2025 13:52
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Yes but the business can get gict cards for a discount on face price, so it's a cheaper reward
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Nov 15, 2025 17:27
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Well, it was five years ago and no one kept any records so, not today IRS.
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Nov 15, 2025 18:19
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Speaking of gift card scams... one of my coworkers got a gift card for the campus coffee shop. She went to redeem it and they told her "We can't accept these at the moment. But they never expire." ... thanks?
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Nov 15, 2025 18:57
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Tagra posted:Speaking of gift card scams... one of my coworkers got a gift card for the campus coffee shop. She went to redeem it and they told her "We can't accept these at the moment. But they never expire." Schrodinger's gift card.
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Nov 15, 2025 20:21
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YT is full of ads for these “Baerskin” hoodies  Every outdoor person I’ve ever known has said that you need to use layers… this company says that is 100% wrong
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Nov 15, 2025 21:08
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…neither of those has a hood, I think that disqualifies them from being hoodies right off the bat.
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Nov 15, 2025 21:23
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They both do, they just have weird poses that don’t actually work irl
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Nov 15, 2025 21:24
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I feel like I've seen that exact pose in a bunch of AI generated clothing pics, too
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Nov 15, 2025 21:53
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Tagra posted:Speaking of gift card scams... one of my coworkers got a gift card for the campus coffee shop. She went to redeem it and they told her "We can't accept these at the moment. But they never expire." 
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Nov 15, 2025 22:54
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Its the same as regular money, but "fun"
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Nov 15, 2025 23:38
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That picture comes into mind so, so often.
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Nov 16, 2025 01:02
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