If you thought gift cards were a convenient, no-sweat gift option this holiday season, one Target shopper is urging you to think again.
TikToker Summer Leigh (@summerleighphotography) says she has been the victim of a “gift card skimming” scam multiple times in the past year. But she says she decided to share her story after seeing several fellow Target shoppers add gift cards to their cart. Her video now has over 154,000 views.
Gift card skimming is a scam in which a thief will use a device to copy the information off of the back of a gift card, as reported by Today. When the card is purchased and loaded with funds, the scammer can use the gift card to make purchases.
“I’ve had about $320 worth of gift cards that were skimmed,” she says. “Some of it we were able to get back. The majority of it we were not.”
She says the first time she was “scammed” was last Christmas when her company decided to sponsor a local family. They purchased a $170 Walmart gift card for the parents. However, a week after giving them the gift card, she says the family told her there was no money on it at checkout.
“I had the receipt. I was like, ‘There is money on here,’” she exclaims. When she took the receipt to Walmart, a worker told her the card had been “skimmed.”
“Luckily, Walmart was able to fix it for me,” she says.
It happens again… and again
But just a few months later, the TikToker says she encountered the same scam. She says she tried to redeem a $100 gift card she received for her wedding. However, when she scanned the gift card, she says she found that it had zero funds.
“I knew for a fact I didn’t use it. I had just taken it out of the VISA package,” she says.
She says she investigated further by typing the card information on VISA’s website, which showed the card’s balance and transaction history. As it turns out, Leigh says it had been drained just a day after the wedding to make an online purchase at CVS.
“We were out of the country, and someone used it. I never even took the gift card out of the pack,” she explains. “We never got the money back.”
Her third encounter with gift card skimming was three days after her baby shower. She says there were no funds in the card she had just received as a gift.
“I’m done with gift cards,” the TikToker laments. “Either give cash, give a gift, or give nothing at all.”
How common is gift card skimming?
Gift card scams are increasingly common. According to a 2022 survey by AARP, one in four people say they’ve received gift cards with zero balance on them. While that could be chalked up to buyer error, it’s also possible that the money was drained from the card.
In the comments, viewers shared their experience with gift card skimming.
“Had it happen with a Walmart gift card. Wonder how many people don’t say anything to the person that bought it for them,” one wrote.
“I got scammed $300 last year from gift cards I bought from Walmart; this year, I still didn’t learn my lesson, lol, and hopefully, the same thing doesn’t happen to me again,” another said.
And a third added, “I received a gift card from a local radio station for Christmas. I checked it , and it has 500 on it. The next day, it was declined.”
Are retailers taking security measures?
Some viewers said they noticed retailers implementing additional security measures to protect sensitive information on gift cards.
“I was pleasantly surprised to learn this year when shopping that Target now adds the code at checkout which addresses this problem,” one shared.
“Target by me manually put the scratch-off stickers in front of us this past weekend to crack down on the skimmers,” another wrote.
Shoppers also take matters into their own hands to avoid gift card scams.
“I now only buy e-gift cards and either text or email them or print out and put them in a package/card,” a viewer suggested.
“I’m just giving g cash this year because last time I bought gift cards at Target, and it was claimed somewhere else,” another said.
@summerleighphotography we had lots of gift cards given to us last year between our wedding and pregnancy and people spent money that losers stole right out from under us!
♬ original sound – summerleighphotography
The Daily Dot reached out to Summer Leigh via email and TikTok direct message. We also contacted Walmart via press form as well as Target and VISA via email.
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