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It’s bonkers to me that gift cards are so readily available to enable these scams. There’s no way the gift card providers (Target, etc.) don’t know about this,

It’s bonkers to me that gift cards are so readily available to enable these scams. There’s no way the gift card providers (Target, etc.) don’t know about this, but they go out of their way to make it as easy as possible and make sure there is zero support available for scams. It’s so infuriating. I know people who have lost hundreds of dollars to people impersonating US Social Security and immigration officers. The gift card providers do not care. The impersonated government agencies do not care. The local police do not care. The phone companies do not care. There is total and utter impunity for everyone perpetrating and enabling these scams.

ronsor 4y ago
Every store I've been in within the past couple of years has had warnings posted everywhere not to buy gift cards and read the codes to unknown people over the phone. I'm not sure if there's an alternative, since I'd seriously rather not ID be required to buy or use a gift card.
- tshaddox 4y ago
  Consider that many victims might be new to the language, new to the country, and know very little about the culture except that they absolutely must immediately and carefully comply with all instructions from US immigration regardless of how arcane and bizarre. And as far as making gift cards safer, shouldn’t that be the responsibility of the gift card providers, not to mention regulators tasked with consumer safety? Why is it that the scammers seem to ask for gift cards rather than, say, banking details? (I’m sure there’s also some banking scams, but I have a feeling there’s non-zero recourse for victims in those cases.) If it truly is somehow impossible to make gift cards safe to use, then I’m convinced society could survive without them. But I doubt it’s impossible. I suspect gift providers deliberately go out of their way to make sure victims have no recourse.
shwoopdiwoop 4y ago
Gift cards are hugely profitable for companies so I can see why they’d be happy to turn a blind eye.

ronsor 4y ago

Every store I've been in within the past couple of years has had warnings posted everywhere not to buy gift cards and read the codes to unknown people over the phone. I'm not sure if there's an alternative, since I'd seriously rather not ID be required to buy or use a gift card.

tshaddox 4y ago
Consider that many victims might be new to the language, new to the country, and know very little about the culture except that they absolutely must immediately and carefully comply with all instructions from US immigration regardless of how arcane and bizarre. And as far as making gift cards safer, shouldn’t that be the responsibility of the gift card providers, not to mention regulators tasked with consumer safety? Why is it that the scammers seem to ask for gift cards rather than, say, banking details? (I’m sure there’s also some banking scams, but I have a feeling there’s non-zero recourse for victims in those cases.) If it truly is somehow impossible to make gift cards safe to use, then I’m convinced society could survive without them. But I doubt it’s impossible. I suspect gift providers deliberately go out of their way to make sure victims have no recourse.

shwoopdiwoop 4y ago

Gift cards are hugely profitable for companies so I can see why they’d be happy to turn a blind eye.