Gift Card Scams - What You Need To Know

23rd August 2024

A friend of a friend sends you a Facebook message asking you to pick up some gift vouchers for your mutual pal who's in hospital. You're going into town anyway, so you pop into M&S to buy them.

Then that friend says they've found just what they need online, so would you mind sending them the code for the gift voucher? And, if it's not too much trouble, scratching off the panel on the back to give them the security code.

That all sounds pretty plausible, doesn't it? But it could be a scam. You want to cheer your friend in hospital up - and you'd like to help the people around them at a difficult time, but as soon as you send the details, the card gets used and the funds are depleted.

The scammers are clever, and they've played on your emotions.

Gift card scams: what do they look like?
Paul Maskall is Strategic Fraud Prevention and Behavioural Lead for UK Finance, and he's an expert on the behaviour of scammers - and our responses to it. He says that with these scams, fraudsters will often try to take advantage of your good nature.

"The emotional side is really important. If I'm a criminal I'll try and create a response to get you to do what I want," he says.

Typically, a scammer will contact you and ask you to buy gift cards, either in a shop or online, then ask you to hand over the codes so they can redeem them or sell them on to other criminals.

One way of doing this is through ‘advance fee scams', where you must pay a fee upfront to ‘unlock' a gain or reward - a gift card is often the way you'll be required to send the funds.

"You might have ‘won’ a prize or a lottery and the scammers will say you need to authenticate this, so go and buy a certain amount of gift cards and then give us the codes to unlock your prize," says Maskall.

"So, you get people turning up to retail establishments buying boatloads of gift cards in order to ‘verify’ themselves."

While most people know to guard their bank details, they’re less protective over gift cards, which makes them ideal for other forms of financial fraud, like romance scams.

"Often, [fraudsters will] ask victims to accept money into their bank account and then transfer it to someone else using bank accounts, MoneyGram, Western Union, iTunes vouchers or other gift cards," says Surrey Police on its page documenting the dangers of romance fraud.

"These scenarios are very likely to be forms of money laundering and you could be committing a criminal offence."

While it seems like it should be easy to not be manipulated by such tactics, the desire to meet someone can make people far more vulnerable.

"In any situation where you’re making that human connection, whether that’s friendship or meeting someone on a dating site, there’s very often a need being met," says Maskall.

"You might be lonely or isolated and you’ll be reaching out for a connection. In that moment, scammers know they can manipulate you by promising companionship or excitement.

How a scammer can try and trap you
We were recently sent an example of a potential scam through an email a reader received from a ‘friend’, showing the emotional manipulation used to get you onside, and the ease with which the conversation starts.

- How are you doing?
I'm unable to speak over the phone due to a serious throat pain caused by laryngitis. Can I ask a favour from you?
Dave*

- Hi Dave - I’m well. Yes, sure fire away!
Hope you’re alright....sounds painful?
Anika*

- Thanks for the response. I need to get a Google Play gift card voucher for my niece, who is diagnosed with stage 4 mesothelioma cancer. It's her birthday, but I can't do this now because I'm currently out of town.

I tried purchasing it online, but unfortunately, I got no luck on that. I was wondering if you could purchase it at any nearest store around you. I'll reimburse you; let me know if you can handle this.

Awaiting your kind reply.

Thanks,

Dave

*Names changed to protect identities

Fortunately, the reader in question felt this was uncharacteristic behaviour from their friend and didn’t respond further.

Read the full article from SAGA

Read advice from Amazon

The Conversation Web Site Tells the tale of Gift Card woes from the USA