Warning on Visa and MC etc gift cards UPDATE

[Omaha Steve]

A relative received 3 at work as a sales bonus. Two were stolen by a criminal method of running random numbers and hit on a valid card. It can take a week or two to get replacement funds after doing paper work with customer service. Custom service says that it happens a lot!

UPDATE: The cards were used at stores that don't require a CVV code like Amazon. The two cards that were used were used at Barns and Noble, Best Buy, and Overstock.com.

OS

[Wella]

1. Kicking for the holidays

Thanks for the warning. If you buy department store gift cards at a supermarket and lose the receipt, the department store may not cover the loss. Make sure you give the gift card WITH the receipt of your purchase to the recipient.

I found this out the hard way. I had received a department store gift card as a holiday gift and (therefore) did not have the receipt. When I went to use it, I was told that the card number had already been used. After a number of phone calls to customer service, I found out that a method similar to the OP had been used to take the total gift amount off the card. The department store said they would cover the loss if I had the receipt. The problem was that I didn't and the friend who had purchased the card was diagnosed with terminal cancer in January and I didn't have the heart to ask for a receipt while she was undergoing chemo and radiation. (Who would?)

Even though the store was well aware the card had been stolen, they would not refund my gift without a receipt. I fought with them, scanned my card and sent it to them as proof, and asked why they were not willing to stand behind a card the KNEW had been criminally accessed and used. Their answer was "store policy."

[Initech]

2. They're the real life equivalent of Itchy and Scratchy dollars from the Simpsons.