It works like a regular gift card but is electronic and already has a set amount of money on it. The person who gets the virtual card can shop at the store that issued the card with the money on it. The money on the e-gift card can be used to pay for any items they want.
Different Kinds of E-Gift Card Scams
E-gift cards are often used in a number of popular fraud schemes.
Scam in the secondary market
In this scam, someone uses stolen credit and bank cards to buy gift cards online from stores or restaurants. Then, the scammer sells those e-gift cards again on other sites, like eBay.
At the same time, the person whose credit card information was used to buy the e-gift card sees a charge on their bank account that wasn’t there. To challenge the charge, they call the bank. The bank gives the customer a refund and then sends a chargeback to the business.
Tests of cards
Card testing is when a scammer uses stolen payment information to buy small things to make sure that the cards work. This type of scam is most likely to happen with e-gift cards because thieves can buy small amounts of them without being caught.
Once they’ve made sure the cards work, they usually go somewhere else to make bigger purchases.
Taking over an account
A scammer takes over a customer’s account by force in an account takeover attack. The goal is to either steal personal information or things that are worth money, like loyalty points or account amounts. Buying and selling gift cards online is an easy way for them to turn their account amounts into cash.
Fraudsters can also use a customer’s gift card balance to buy things on the business’s website and ship them to a different address if the business doesn’t have any account security measures in place.
How to hack gift card numbers
In this scam of All-in-1 Choice Gift Card, thieves try to find real e-gift cards by using bots to compare e-gift card numbers to different activation code combinations. Bots are computers that are programmed to do things on their own, so they can quickly check thousands of card numbers and codes.
Abuse of older people
Scammers will sometimes use social engineering to get gift cards, such as hacking or phone scams. Most of the time, All-in-1 Choice Gift Card go after older people who are easy to control.
Fraudsters will often call an elderly person and say that a family member is in jail while claiming to work for the government. Giving that family member money in the form of gift cards is the only way to help them out. The old person then buys digital gift cards and gives the scammer the card numbers.
What merchants can do about e-gift card fraud
Egift card fraud, like other types of fraud, can hurt your business in many ways. For example, it can cause you to lose money, merchandise, and your brand. When you know the risks, you can take the right steps to avoid this type of scam completely.
Back charges and fines
When cardholders find purchases they didn’t make, they usually fight the charges with their banks. If someone gets e-gift cards with stolen payment information from your business, you will have to pay for all the fees and charge backs that happen.
Damage to your reputation
When a customer uses your business to fall for an egift card trick, that customer probably won’t buy anything or gift cards from you again. That’s because most people think companies are dishonest. When people stop buying from you, it can hurt your business’s image and make it look like they can’t be trusted.
Loss of money
When people make fake orders, the merchant is almost always held responsible. When a cardholder disputes charges for e-gift cards, you not only lose the money from the sale, but you also have to refund the cardholder and may have to pay fees and fines.
Risks for the future
Scams like card testing show you where your security is weak. If thieves find out they can use your business to test transactions with e-gift cards, they will probably use it for other risky fraud schemes as well.
How to Stop E-Gift Card Fraud
Want to know how to stop scams and chargebacks on e-gift cards? There are ways to help protect your business, though.
Make your website safer
Do not let scripts and bots test your website with card testing or egift card number testing. Instead, add captchas. Also, set up barriers to keep an eye on the traffic on your site better.
Need people to give you more information
When a customer buys an e-gift card, you should ask for more information, like their name, address, and email address. When thieves use e-gift cards, they can usually get away with it because the victims don’t have to give out personal information like an address. Getting more information, on the other hand, can help find possible scams.
Add steps to confirm name
When a customer tries to receive a gift card, you should add a step to make sure they are who they say they are. For unknown customers, this could be multi-factor authentication, and for known customers, it could be passive authentication. You could also make customers sign in to an account before they can use a gift card.
Set up protection rules for your accounts
Setting up account safety rules is the best thing you can do to protect your loyal customers from account takeover threats. This will make it harder for thieves to get into accounts, steal important information, or drain the accounts.
Are electronic gift cards safe?
Egift card fraud is when someone gets gift cards online with stolen credit card information and then either uses the cards themselves or sells them to someone else. In essence, it’s a way to make money. Fraudsters can easily get away with scams with e-gift cards because buyers don’t have to add many personal details to them.
What are the good and bad things about gift cards?
A gift card, which is sometimes called a stored value card, is a way to pay for things in shops, petrol stations, restaurants and other places. You put money on the card, and then you or the person who receives it can use it at places that take it. You can get open-loop or closed-loop gift cards.
