Bought. Gift card within fifteen minutes I had sent info to redeem and was told it was a used card and had already been redeemed. I didn’t use it but it’s gone. This is a huge fraud that apple is selling. Need to stop these sources of fraud
[Re-Titled by Moderator]
Fraud involving gift cards sold from open racks — "card draining" — is unfortunately all too common.
Gift Cards purchased directly from Apple are preferable.
Purchases from a retailer that keeps their gift cards inaccessible is usually somewhat safer.
Gift Cards can be pre-redeemed, awaiting activation, and immediate theft; awaiting purchase and draining.
One of various published articles on card-draining fraud:
https://www.propublica.org/article/maryland-gift-card-scams-prevention-act-walmart-incomm-retail
Fraud involving gift cards sold from open racks — "card draining" — is unfortunately all too common.
Gift Cards purchased directly from Apple are preferable.
Purchases from a retailer that keeps their gift cards inaccessible is usually somewhat safer.
Gift Cards can be pre-redeemed, awaiting activation, and immediate theft; awaiting purchase and draining.
One of various published articles on card-draining fraud:
https://www.propublica.org/article/maryland-gift-card-scams-prevention-act-walmart-incomm-retail
You're blaming the wrong people. This has been going on for years. Crooks swipe dozens of cards (or as many as they can grab) off of aisle displays. They then open the card holder and scratch off the coating to reveal the confirmation number. With that info, they register the cards under their own name.
Then (and I don't know why anyone sells these to the public), they put new scratch off tape over the numbers, tape the card holder back together and bring them back to the store where they swiped them from.
As soon as someone puts money on any of those cards, they get a notification funds have been added. They then pull the cash out as fast as they can. As an added delay, the crooks will purposely destroy a couple of the numbers/letters before putting the new scratch tape on so they have more time to grab the funds.
Never, never, ever buy a gift card off of a general rack. Store owners should keep these under a counter and pull them out only on request for a sale.
This is not a discussion forum. But you can contact Apple Support for help for this issue.
About Gift Card Scams - Apple Support
You can also call Apple at 800-275-2273 (U.S.) and say "gift cards" when prompted.
Issue with Apple Gift Card, already redeemed
