A Montreal woman has been refunded after more than $500 in gift cards she received to buy baby supplies were emptied by an unknown fraudster before her use.
“When I went to swipe the cards there was nothing left on them,” Samantha Vandzura told CTV Montreal.
Vandzura, who received the Walmart cards as a gift from her boss when her son was born, was on a trip to Florida when the alleged fraud occurred. Walmart told Vandzura that the funds had already been used at two different stores in Ontario. She was initially told that the company couldn’t do anything.
“The best they could do was give me a phone number to call to reach the gift card department at Walmart,” said Vandzura, who was eventually refunded.
Upset by the incident, Vandzura went online and discovered that this type of fraud is not uncommon.
According to cybersecurity experts, thieves take advantage of the fact gift cards are typically on open display in stores.
“They can exploit the card and drain it before the actual user uses it,” Steve Waterhouse of INFOSECSW told CTV News.
They remove a strip on the back of the card to gain access to its security code, then replace the original strip with one bought online. The fraudster then waits for an alert that the card has been purchased, at which point they proceed to spend the money.
The RCMP is reportedly aware of gift card fraud but can’t say how widespread it is across the country.
The Retail Council of Canada says that, in Quebec alone, more than $245 million was spent on gift cards during the holiday season last year.
