An Ontario woman says she purchased two Walmart gift cards that she thought contained $600, but when she tried to use them, they were empty.
"It was at that time that the cashier told me that both cards were at zero, which I knew couldn't have been possible," Edith Chan of Markham, Ont. told CTV News Toronto.
Chan said she was told to file a police report and given a number to call at Walmart. Despite having receipts for the gift cards, she's been unable to get her money back.
"When I made the purchase, I didn't think I was going to have to go online and see how people could steal the money from these gift cards," said Chan.
Consumer Reports says there are various scams thieves use with gift cards, including stickers to replace the barcode and pin labels with their own, so when you load money onto a card, it goes on the scammer's card instead.
Because of this, Chuck Bell with Consumer Reports said you should carefully inspect gift card packaging.
"You want to avoid getting cards that may have been tampered with, and the one way to do that is to look for gift cards with more secure packaging or perhaps behind the counter," said Bell.
Another way to avoid fraud is to buy virtual or digital gift cards.
"In some ways, that may be a lot safer than taking the risk of a card that could have been tampered with," said Bell.
A spokesperson for Walmart Canada told CTV News Toronto they take these types of concerns seriously and work with their customers on a case-by-case basis to resolve issues.
"We have since been in touch with the customer, apologized for her experience and have agreed to reimburse her," the statement reads.
"Walmart Canada issues and processes thousands of gift cards daily and incidents of gift card tampering are extremely rare. We have measures in place to protect our customers, including in-store signage and tips online about best practices for gift card fraud prevention. To further protect our customers, our gift card displays are in high-traffic areas and our associates are trained to regularly monitor gift cards for signs of tampering."
Walmart Canada also encourages customers to hold on to their gift card receipts, double-check that the gift card number on the receipt matches the number on the back of the card and search for signs of tampering.
After almost three months of trying, Chan was relieved that she was given back her $600.
"I'm very pleased to get this money back," said Chan.
