08/22/2024

Gift card scams generate billions for fraudsters and industry as regulators fail to protect consumers − and how one 83-year-old fell into the ‘fear bubble’

The Conversation

Wednesday morning, the day before Thanksgiving, Mae awoke, set her hair in curlers and switched on her laptop. The screen froze and a message appeared. It said her Safari web browser had encountered a problem, and a link offered to connect the 83-year-old to the Apple Computer Company. Mae clicked it.

She didn’t know it yet, but Mae, like millions of Americans each year, had fallen into the grip of fraudsters. Over the next 10 hours, the criminals would try several methods to steal her money. The one that worked without a hitch was getting her to buy gift cards. The common cards, from retailers such as Target, Apple and Amazon, are sold on racks in drugstores and supermarkets. They’re better than cash for a fraudster, more portable and just as anonymous. Once criminals have the gift card numbers, they use them to purchase goods online, at stores around the world, or sell or trade them in illicit marketplaces on the dark web, Telegram or Discord.