WASHINGTON — The FBI is out with a warning when it comes to holiday gift cards. They're urging people to be careful...saying thieves are coming up with ways to steal money right off the cards.
The FBI and other consumer experts warn gift cards are one of the top scams for hackers during the holiday. Which cards are bring targeted? Tech expert Anthony Mongeluzo says, “Target was number one, Google Play was number 2, and shockingly to me, Walmart was actually the least with only 6 million dollars, so Walmart was actually the least in this whole scam.”
Also on the top list? Apple. Mongeluzo says scammers are waiting for you to buy gift cards so they can have a payday. "Hackers are going into the store, they're either changing codes on gift cards so that when you hit that barcode, the hacker's barcode, they then get an alert saying, 'Hey this has now been activated', so let me go grab the money or just due to weak physical security they're just actually able to see the numbers and then just put monitoring software." He says it's also a possibility that cards are being compromised on delivery trucks before they get to store shelves.
One way to reduce the risk? Mongeluzo says, “Do not buy physical gift cards anymore. Go on Amazon.com, go on Walmart.com, go on Target.com, and purchase that digital gift card there because there's a much less chance of their online system being hacked.”
And if your gift card does get wiped? Mongeluzo says, "You hope that some of these shops like Target, like Apple, might have a protection like your credit card.”
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