Buying a Gift Card? Its Balance Might Already Be $0

Gift cards are often a convenient or last-minute holiday gift, but they can be a little risky. Thieves are known to target gift cards, trying to steal your money before you can use it.

"Somebody is ending up with a lot of money," said Scott Buzo, who works at NBC San Diego.

Buzo bought two gift cards, but each of them showed up empty when his family tried to use them.

"These were brand new," said Buzo. "They were right off the shelf, the pegboard, completely sealed."

Buzo said he bought two Vanilla Visa gift cards worth $100 each as gifts for his family, but someone else had already spent the money.

"I can't imagine how many other people have experienced the exact same thing," said Buzo.

It is happening to other people. NBC 7 Responds dug through thousands of complaints sent into our NBC and Telemundo responds teams across the nation to see where this was happening.

Since January, there have been more than 60 reports. Those range from Los Angeles and the Bay Area, to New York, Miami, even Dallas.

Most of these complaints have to do with the Visa and American Express gift cards you can buy off almost any gift card rack.

The most common way thieves steal a gift card balance is by scratching off the sticker to reveal the codes on the back. Then they replace those scratch off stickers with ones easily bought online and wait, checking to see if that card has been activated.

Buzo said his packaging was completely intact, so he doesn't think that's what happened to him. We asked InComm, the company that issues these cards, about what's going on. They didn't want to go into details to prevent copycats, but we found an expert who gave us a bit more insight.

"Somebody could get into the organization that's holding those funds," said Niko Behar, a cybersecurity professor at the University of San Diego.

Behar is also a white hat hacker, who helps companies strengthen their systems. He said he doesn't know of any recent breaches, but it's possible someone could grab the code to your gift card without ever touching the card itself.

"They actually have automated code they get in underground hacking forms," said Behar.

And that code can search for activated gift cards, as long as it doesn't trigger any safety systems at the company.

"It could check hundreds or thousands in a minute," said Behar. "The issue becomes the site doing the verification, the one telling you, 'yes you have $100 on this card,' might notice or may go down if you send too many checks over a small amount of time."

As for the cards on the rack at your local store, Behar has very little confidence in them.

"I'd say [there's] a 40 to 50% chance they've been emptied," said Behar.

With this gift card fraud running rampant, we also asked InComm what it's doing to prevent these thefts.

They sent us a statement saying: InComm Payments takes fraud very seriously and continues to invest significantly in solutions to protect cardholders. We do not comment on individual cases to respect the privacy of our customers, and we do not disclose the tactics that fraudsters use in order to help prevent copycat behavior. We can share that we have protocols in place to investigate cardholder queries, and we review cases with our partners to reduce the potential for future occurrences.

Individuals who believe they may be a victim of fraud should call the customer care phone number on the back of their card immediately to report the issue. Our customer care department can explain available options to the cardholder. For more information on their cards or to check account balances, cardholders should visit their product’s official website, which is printed on the back of their card.

How to Avoid Gift Card Scams

There are some other ways to reduce the risk of your holiday happiness getting drained along with that gift card:

1. Buy e-gift cards. Behar said he often buys cards online or an electronic version. Those cards can go directly from the issuer to the recipient, making them a little more secure.
2. Inspect the packaging. If you do buy in a store, grab the ones in the back and check carefully for any signs of tampering.
3. Use it as soon as possible. If you get a card, use it! You can also try to register it if that's an option to try and reduce the chance of theft.
4. Save your receipt and file a claim. As soon as you notice missing money, take action.

Buzo filed those claims and is now waiting for the 90-day processing period.

"I just want my money back," said Buzo. "Give me my money back, and catch the suckers that took it from me!"

Remember, if you get a gift card during the holidays, check the balance quickly. Waiting too long may mean it's too long to file a claim to get the money back.