PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Pennsylvania Attorney General Michelle Henry says a new scam is targeting holiday shoppers buying gift cards.
According to Henry, scammers pull information like PINs from un-purchased gift cards hanging on store shelves. Then, once a store-goer buys it and it’s activated, the scammer uses the information they jotted down to almost immediately purchase things on it, leaving the gift-card buyer with nothing.
Henry says this scam has been reported more than 100 times at a grocery store in eastern Pennsylvania and is now happening in other parts of the state and country.
Henry advises that those buying gift cards inspect them for tampering, make sure the scratch coding is untouched, and only purchase them if the card is sealed in some way.
She also recommends keeping the receipt.
If you feel you’ve been a target of card draining, report it to the company you purchased from, as well as the Attorney General’s office.