Here is a TV news story about the gift card scam where someone scans the card before activation and then when it is activated they clone it and spend it. This story doesn’t really tell us anything new, but when you hear it from TV, it makes it sound like the scam is happening all the time. Perhaps it is. The anchor’s only suggestion is to buy a gift card from a customer service representative instead of a cashier? What exactly does that mean anyway?

My suggestion is to purchase your cards from an area inaccessible by customers, such as behind the register. If the only gift cards that are available are accessible to anyone, consider buying them online. I am no really surprised that stores like Target and Wal-Mart (the two mentioned in the story) haven’t fixed this problem by making their cards accessible only to cashiers. The reason they don’t do this is that cards that are hidden away don’t sell well and the voices of customers scammed in this way hasn’t turned into a roar yet.