KETTERING — It’s crunch time for holiday shopping and many people will turn to gift cards to get everyone checked off their list, but scammers are turning to gift cards, too.
As News Center 7′s Xavier Hershovitz reported at 5:00, the Better Business Bureau (BBB) said that gift card scams are up 50 percent from last year.
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“Scammers are doubling down on gift card scams, especially with online shoppers,” Sheri Sword with the BBB said.
She said gift cards “make it very easy” for scammers.
“They can use them very quickly. They can transfer them to another source very quickly and it’s hard for you as the consumer to recover,” Sword explained.
This is because gift cards are sort of like cash. You can’t track cash and you can’t track gift card spending.
“It’s very easy for them to get your money and run,” Sword said.
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In these scams, it’s often someone pretending to be someone else and demanding payment in gift cards. Sometimes scammers say they’re companies like Apple or Amazon. Other times, they pretend they are law enforcement agencies like the FBI or your local sheriff’s office demanding payments or even threatening to throw you in jail.
“If someone’s asking you to pay by gift card, red flags should go off in your head immediately. Because why are they not taking your typical form of payment?” Sword said.
When it comes to gift cards this holiday season, Sword said they are still a great gift. She just recommends that the gift card you’re buying doesn’t have any signs of being tampered with.
You can file a consumer complaint with the Ohio Attorney General’s Office here.
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