Have you fallen victim to a gift card scam? Some businesses can help you get your money back

The digital world is full of scammers out to steal your money and data, and most of the time they’ll ask you to pay for goods or services via gift cards.

Even the most seasoned netizen can fall victim to this fraudster trick, then buy a gift card and send them the numbers on the card as payment.

According to the FTC’s 2022 fraud report, the agency received about 49,000 cases relating to fraudulent gift card or reload card payments, with reported losses of $228 million.

Gift card scams can target people in many ways, including phone, text, email or social media, with fraudsters cleverly disguising their ruse to steal your money. Some of the most common scenarios in which consumers lose money by purchasing gift cards include:

· Paying government or utility impostors who threaten you with fines, deportation, jail time, other legal actions or shutting off utilities in their household

· Paying bogus tech support agents that say something is wrong with your device

· Paying for a prize, lottery winnings or other sweepstake gifts

· Paying a romantic interest you meet on a dating website

What can you do if you fall victim to a gift card scammer?

Consumers who bought a gift card to make payment online should immediately report the scam to both the emitting company or business and the FTC (even if you were scammed a long time ago).

Moreover, according to the consumer agency, businesses are also keen to stop these scammers by flagging fraudulent transactions and freezing gift card money to reimburse scammed individuals.

These companies include Amazon, American Express, Best Buy Apple, eBay, Walmart, Steam and others.

Check out the full list here.

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