Gift cards are great things to buy, especially during the holiday shopping season. If you aren’t sure of what to buy for a picky relative, or for the teenager whose taste in music is completely foreign to you, a gift card to the recipient’s favorite store is all but guaranteed to be a pleaser.
If you go online, you’ll find all sorts of gift cards for sale. Online auction sites are typically the first places people will go to buy or sell these cards. The Internet is the place to go if you’re looking for a discounted card: a quick look at most popular auction sites will turn up gift cards that are selling for far less than their current balances. You can find a one-hundred-dollar gift card for fifty dollars, or even less, on some sites.
Be suspicious
You, the savvy consumer, have every reason to be suspicious of this so-called “great deal.” The truth is that, in most cases, the gift cards are anything but legitimate. The two biggest problems are stolen funds and false dollar amounts.
Profiting from crime and lies
Thieves steal checks or credit cards and use them to purchase gift cards. Then they get on the Internet and sell the cards. They’re profiting from their crimes and the person who buys the offered cards is helping them.
The other big problem is that some people lie about how much is on the gift cards that they’re trying to sell. Just because the listing claims that the card has a positive balance doesn’t mean that this is true.
Non-loaded cards
Some consumers in the past have bought cards, only to discover that they were never even loaded. Thieves steal the cards from stores without activating or loading them. Until the retailer loads the card at the register (a vital part of the process that thieves skip), the card doesn’t really exist as far as the merchant’s cash register is concerned.
Legitimate gift cards
Not all Internet sellers are thieves or con artists. Some really do have legitimate gift cards – often given to them by well-meaning friends who don’t really know what stores the recipients like to patron. Since the cards are basically useless to the recipients, they’re content with any amount of cash that they can get in exchange.
The problem is that, until you have the card (or the card’s numbers) with you, you can’t check the remaining balance. You’ll have to purchase the gift card from the seller and hope that everything is legit.
Receipts are not proof
A scanned copy of a store receipt that’s posted on the auction site with the card isn’t solid proof that the card still has a positive balance. Anybody can load the card, spend the balance but show you the first receipt without ever mentioning the second.
And no matter how authentic the auction’s listing seems, people who are trying to con you out of your money will lie about why they’re offering such an unbelievable, great deal. The thieves will use all sorts of sob stores – a sick relative, children who are in dire need of Christmas gifts, whatever – to make you feel for them and stop wondering why they’re practically giving away their gift cards.
The best way to buy your card
The best way to avoid unnecessary frustrations is to buy gift cards directly from retail stores. Many supermarkets and department stores offer cards for numerous other stores, so you can stop at one or two places and pick up gift cards for everybody on your shopping list.
You won’t receive a discount on the balance – you’ll have to pay fifty dollars to put fifty dollars on the card – but you and your recipient will both be happier and less frustrated in the end.
