Featured Image Credit: ITV
Topics: ITV, This Morning, Christmas, Crime, Shopping
Tom Earnshaw
A Christmas gift card warning has been issued to all Brits thinking of gifting or receiving one this year, with criminals 'waiting and checking' to steal your money.
At this point, who hasn't received or sent out a gift card when the big festive day comes around?
They can be a slightly more thoughtful way of just putting cash in a card or envelope, with at least some thought process behind it. And you can get more bang for your buck too, with multiple deals out there giving you more money than you've spent for deciding to gift exclusively to spent at one store or outlet.
And, if we're honest, they aren't half a last-minute win if you've forgotten about a certain someone in the family or friendship circle.
But for Christmas 2024, the criminals are out in full force to ruin any fun relating to a gift card. With the scam already going wild in the USA, it is now heading across the Atlantic to the United Kingdom, according to ITV This Morning's consumer editor, Alice Beer.
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"So this is happening all across the United States but I'm not seeing these warnings massively across the UK," she said in a segment on the ITV show with presenters Cat Deeley and Dermot O'Leary.
"But you will. And in January, you'll be thinking, 'Oh gosh, I remember Alice Beer barking on about this'.
"So the fraudster goes to the point of sale. They take the gift card they take the number. They then reseal it.
"The consumer gets a gift card, goes and adds value to it, and the fraudster is waiting and checking the balance on that gift card until it's loaded and spending the money."
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Beer said she spoke to someone the night before the clip aired on ITV who had fallen victim to this scam.
The victim, a woman called Anne from Liverpool, had bought two £200 gift cards for John Lewis and Apple.
"When she gave them to her brothers, one a policeman, one a solicitor, they went to spend them... there was no value on them," Beer said.
"It's happening all the time."
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Shops are, thankfully, learning from this with big signs appearing in some places such as supermarkets where gift cards are regularly picked up. The packaging is also warning customers not to buy a gift card that looks tampered with.
Beer also showed the back of an Apple gift card, which has a 'tamper-proof little seal on it'.
"So when I took this to the till, they peeled this off," she said.
"But I think, possibly, somebody could possibly stick this back down again... just examine the card.
"If there's any sign of tampering when you take it to the till, check with the cashier before you load it because this is going to be a massive thing this Christmas."
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With the money on a gift card being untraceable, that is exactly why criminals are targeting them. So be safe out there.