How do scammers extract money from the gift cards they get? How is it that companies can’t stop them?

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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

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Anonymous 0 Comments

In addition to the methods being mentioned, another method is by using fake apps on Google Play or the iTunes store. Using the fraudulently acquired gift cards, scammers make in-app purchases on fake apps created for the sole purpose of funneling the gift card money into a ‘legitimate’ bank account, which can then be redistributed to everyone involved with the bonus of making it look like a legitimate business

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