CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (WDEF) — The season for Christmas shopping is upon us. The Better Business Bureau is now encouraging people to be on alert for gift card scams.
“If you are out buying gift cards for family and friends, which is one of the key gifts, make sure you are checking that there is no signs that they have been tampered with,” said Michele Mason, President of Better Business Bureau. “Unfortunately, we have seen scammers get information from a card and then wait until funds are loaded and then they will download those funds and steal them.”
According to the Better Business Bureau, online shoppers are hit the hardest.
Especially when they lose money from gift card fraud.
“Online retail scams have become our number one scam that is reported to the Better Business Bureau scam tracker page,” said Mason. “It has been growing, not only because of COVID, when many people tend to be going more online, but especially at the holidays.”
Gift card scams can happen through calls, text and email.
Better Business Bureau says if you are scammed, call the police and your bank.
“If you do have a scam, you are going to work with a financial institution or law enforcement. We encourage you to visit the Better Business Bureau page called scam tracker and report that too because it helps let others know in the community what is happened, so they can be more aware of the scams that are happening out there,” Mason said.
