We’ve reported many times before on gift cards being stolen by Postal employees (like here, here, and here) and employees of other package carriers and even employees that deliver mail in large buildings.

What is surprising is that people still send gift card unprotected through the mail.

As a reminder for the holiday season, when a large percentage of gift cards are purchased and mailed each year, here are some tips on safe mailing.

• Before you mail, write down the numbers of the cards to make sure you can report them stolen if they don’t arrive
• Verify with the recipient that they arrived and still have the initial value on them.
• Do not package gift cards in something obvious, like a greeting card.  Gift cards can be felt very easily and snatched from the mail.  A better idea is to put gift cards is a small box.
• It isn’t just theft that can make your gift card disappear.  A small percentage of gift cards mailed in greeting cards or plain envelopes get mangled by the automatic sorting machinery; the gift cards can get separate from the letter.