I was discussing different scam techniques I have heard of/seen with my husband the other day. I wondered out loud… “what do these guys do with iTunes or whichever gift cards they get?” Obviously they are not shopping at the Apple Store?
He said they have a way to get the money out of them, but didn’t know how it worked. I assume he’s right… now I am curious how does this happen, and why can’t apple or google make it harder for the scammers to use their gift cards?
EDIT – lots of good explanations! I was talking specifically about gift card scammers who convince their victims over phone/email/text to purchase gift cards and send them the activated codes. TIL there are many ways to use gift cards to scam ppl.
In: Technology
There are several ways. First there is a code on the back to put money from a gift card into an account this is what they are after. They can get that code in a couple of different ways the simplest is have a mark buy the card and give them the code by convincing the mark that they should. This is done by cold calling people and telling them that you are the irs or a bank or a grandson and need to be paid in giftcards.
another way to get the code is to take cards open them up and get the codes and somehow reseal the gift card so it doesn’t look tampered with. This requires you to constantly check the codes but eventually someone buys the card it becomes active and you take the money. This can be easily defeated by checking the packaging to ensure it hasn’t been tampered with.
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