Good Lifestyle

Gift cards Are a timeless vacation gift, to remove the stress from the donor, who no longer has to worry about getting the right thing. And they are practical: if you are looking for a gift card to a larger retailer, you generally do not need to go to one of their locations to buy it. Pharmacies like CVS and Walgreens often sell a wide selection of gift cards for popular retailers, which means that you can easily find an option for everyone on your list. But while gift cards can be an easy to buy and give gift, they are also an easy target for crooks.

In relation: The FBI issues a new warning on the latest scams designed to "steal your money".

Gift card scams are not new, but fraudsters are constantly intensifying their game. In this spirit, the Polole, Pinole, California police department, in California, California, California, California, California Facebook To explain how criminals can ward you off and what you can do to stop them.

When purchasing a gift card, the visible barcode is scanned in the register to allow you to pay the amount you want to offer, the patrol sergeant Barry Duggan From the Pinole police service, explains in the video. Once you have given it to the recipient, they remove the physical card from the cardboard envelope - which is purely decorative - and scratch a sticker to reveal a code. AE0FCC31AE342FD3A1346EBB1F342FCB

This code is the one you enter online or provide a cashier when using the gift card to buy. And this is what the crooks take advantage to steal funds when the gift cards are purchased.

"Someone was taking all the store cards without paying them," said Duggan, adding that once the thieves have the cards at home, they use the heat to melt the adhesive envelope holding the card and then cut the part of the card that has the access code.

"Then they take the lower half of the card [with the barcode] - which does not really mean anything now - push it back in the envelope, replay it, and just like that, you have a whole new card - gift you think … You get for your person for Christmas, "said Duggan.

Although some victims do not realize that their money was stolen before trying to use the gift card, if someone opens their gift to see that the card has already been cut in half, it is a sign Clearly that something is wrong.

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Fortunately, there are a few simple tips to avoid falling for this program, in particular by feeling the gift card to make sure that it was not falsified.

"What we advise to do is that when you buy gift cards ... Feel the whole card - it should be the same size as a credit card," said Duggan in the video.

Another option is to obtain the store authorization to ensure that the whole card is contained in the envelope.

"With the permission of the store, when you go up to buy them, as you buy them, remove them from these files and take the card and make sure the whole card is there," explains Duggan. "In this way, when you give your gift to a loved one in this Christmas, they actually get this money and they can spend it for everything they want, rather than someone else expenditure for [them] . "

Caden card scams As these are not limited to California - they are on the radar of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), with James Barnacle , head of the financial crimes section, in the agency's criminal investigation division, telling ABC News that there had been a peak in recent weeks.

To avoid any type of gift card scam, the FBI recommends looking for signs of falsification on the packaging, also checking if the silver scratch material has been changed. You can keep even more safe by buying gift cards sold behind the counter and keeping your receipts.

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