How To Activate Stolen Gift Cards At Home
How To Activate Stolen Gift Cards At Home - This article was written by wikiHow staff writer Dev Murphy, MA. Dev Murphy is a WikiHow staff writer with experience as a teacher, ghostwriter, editor, and illustrator. She likes to write articles properly because she likes to learn new things and she believes that knowledge should be free and accessible to the world.
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How To Activate Stolen Gift Cards At Home
Devin's creative writing and visual art has been featured extensively online and in print. When she's not writing on WikiHow, she's painting, making perfume, or writing hybrid poetry. Dev received his MA in English Literature from Ohio University in 2017. She lives in Pittsburgh with her cat, Nick.
There are 10 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page. This article has been viewed 386,788 times. Learn more... Whether you've received a gift card from someone for your special day or are considering buying one for someone else, it can be difficult to know if the card is automatically activated or if you need to take steps to activate it yourself.
Some gift cards are activated by the cashier when you purchase them, while others are activated online or over the phone. Read on to find out how to set up your gift card so there's nothing between you (or your loved one) and shopping bliss.
Activate A Gift Card Without Scanning It – What Scammers Do
To activate a gift card, start by placing the activation sticker on the front of the card. If you don't see this sticker or something like it on your card, it doesn't need to be activated. Next, find the ID number, activation code and/or PIN number on the sticker.
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If your card has a PIN number, you may need to peel off the sticker or use a coin to scratch the material to get it. Then call the phone number on the sticker and wait for instructions. You'll probably hear automated prompts or get a live customer service representative on the line.
Follow the instructions provided and enter the activation number(s) on the sticker to activate the card. For tips on how to activate a gift card online, read on! Fraud: Thieves note the identifying information displayed on gift cards offered for sale, then call frequently to verify they have been activated, and drain these cards of the amount they contain when activated.
Status: A genuine scam that usually costs victims between $25 and $500. Scammers have found a way to steal your gift card balance. If you buy gift cards from a display rack with different store cards, you may be vulnerable to theft. Fraudsters now enter card numbers at the store, then wait a few days and call to find out how much balance is on the card.
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They find that the card is "activated" and then they go online and start shopping. You may want to purchase your card from a customer service person who does not have gift cards visible to the public. Please share this with all your family and friends... As per the alarm of the moment, unsuspecting consumers are being duped with the values placed on gift cards purchased at stores.
Fraudsters write down the numbers displayed on the cards offered for sale, and then periodically check to see if these numbers are valid; That is, the cards they hold are purchased and loaded with monetary values. When they find their possessions, they use them to make purchases online ("Card Not Present" or "CNP") thus draining their monetary value before their original owners can attempt to use them.
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We're not sure how seriously to take this warning. Some retail and law enforcement groups suggest that while gift card fraud of the type described above is known to occur, it is relatively rare and fears of gift card theft are exaggerated. The most common types of gift card fraud are resellers who inflate the value of the cards and thieves who buy gift cards with stolen credit cards, then return them and sell them for cash.
Of course the e-mail warning (issued by the Jackson County [Oregon] Sheriff's Department on November 9, 2006 as a "Fraud Alert") does not apply to all gift cards, but only to those that can be used in "card not present" (ie "CNP") situations, when shopping online.
How Can I Check The Balance On My Gift Card?
Even among those, only those that do not offer additional security measures in the form of encrypted PINs (which legitimate cardholders must know to use their cards online) are vulnerable to this type of theft. Although a skimmer can in many cases identify the number of an unpurchased card very easily by looking at the back of the card (removing it from its cardboard base if necessary and placing the plastic neatly on her placard), he may not.
The cardholder's PIN can easily hide his presence, an important piece of information he needs if he wants to use the card online (as opposed to "card not present" situations). Many retailers subject to gift card fraud require a specific PIN to be entered along with the card number in situations where the card is not presented to a clerk.
On the back of the card, said pin is obscured so that an envelope has to be scratched to reveal it. However, the thief's act of replacing the card on the cardboard placard helps hide the deformation of the PIN card's protective coating. If someone buys the card without first fully inspecting it (ie, removing it from the packaging to look at both sides of it), they will leave the store with a compromised card in their possession.
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A customer looked at both sides of a card he was considering purchasing, but failed to understand the significance of the card's already easily readable PIN code. When the email alert instructs you to pick cards only from places inaccessible to the general public (ie, in situations where a clerk has to hand it to you instead of pulling it from the shelf herself), remember that store, and the clerks themselves are known.
How Do I Cancel A Gift Card?
Steal and don't consider card isolation a safe and secure defense against this type of fraud. Whether you pick a card off a shelf or a clerk hands it to you, check both sides of your purchase before paying, even if it means removing the item from its packaging.
If you see signs of tampering, or the card's PIN has been exposed, do not purchase the card. Instead, submit what you see to store management. If the card is of the type that can't be used in "card not present" situations, you almost don't have to worry about it, because a thief would have to have the card itself to avoid it, not the card itself.
Only its number. Here are some other ways criminals know how to enrich themselves with gift cards: Consider how popular these easy-to-carry pieces of plastic have become, considering the potential for theft that gift cards offer. According to the National Retail Federation's annual gift card survey, gift card sales for the 2006 holiday season will reach $24.81 billion, an increase of $6 billion over 2005's $18.48 billion.
What's more, the NRF says, the average consumer will spend more on gift cards. They did in 2005: $116.51, $88.03. The popularity of gift cards has made them such a big part of the holiday season that stores are likely to see a significant drop in total dollars reported during the 2006 holiday shopping season.
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