CALGARY- Gift cards are especially popular this time of year-especially for those people who are hard to shop for. But not all are created equally.
Some buyers have been turning to Kijiji or Craigslist in hopes of picking some up at bargain prices, however, they may fall victim to a scam that involves selling gift cards bought with stolen credit cards.
Rick Creswicke bought a $1,500 Home Depot card online for $1,100, but after using it only a few times it was cancelled. It turns out the card he’d purchased was either bought with a stolen credit card, or issued for a fraudulent return.
“It took three weeks for them to find out that there was a problem,” Creswicke complains. “Had I used the card totally I probably would have gotten away with it, except that now I’ve got stolen goods. The cops could have said ‘this is all bought stolen’ and taken it away from me.’”
The owner of Canadian-based Card Swap says they screen sellers and ask for a credit card number in the event of a fraud.
“We always check all the values on our gift cards before we resell them to someone else so we provide a Card Swap guarantee that if you buy a gift card from us, there’s definitely the whole value still on there,” says Frances Ho.
Consumers are also encouraged to purchase gift cards in-store, to avoid scams.
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