I purchased Wish Gift cards this weekend.
I checked the balance of them today and can see someone has withdraw the whole balance from the gift cards.
I have reported the fraud to Woolworth's. I feel very very violated. How can someone know the balance of my cards and withdraw the entire amount even though only I know the PIN?
@brendanm
Lol
Yes, you should only use Bankwest MC.
Wot?
I'm checking in to the asylum as we speak, I have officially been pushed over the edge by gift cards.
Only been 20 hours between gift cards gone wrong posts. Almost made it to 24 hours. Almost!
Woolworths store. The pin was secured and I had to scratch the cards to revel the pin.
4 digit pin .. only takes <9999 times to brute force
share screenshots please
have reported the fraud to Woolworth's
Go get em Karen!
Should setup camp and picket head office until you're voice is heard!
You reckon it was a cyber crime?
Another day another gift card related issue
I don't understand why are gift cards not completely banned from getting sold when Woolworth's is not able to secure the money in them? Why are gift cards being sold?
They make the issuers money.
What's in it for the buyer?
Pre redeemed cards, problems with refunds, card not accepted at many places.
Interesting. Normally, scammers would replace the barcode on your giftcard with theirs. So when you went to pay and activate it, it would activate their cards and you wouldn't be any the wiser.
Scammers will steal the cards, scratch off the stickers, record the pins and place new scratch off stickers. They'll then put back the comprimised cards and wait for someone to activate it.
A simple script can be setup to check for card activation every few hours.
That first part seems unlikely to me. Higher risk, lower reward.
Source please?
Why is the first part unlikely?
Sources, please
Touché! I don't have sources, just seems like an poor way to do it. Not saying it doesn't happen, it probably does, but I don't see how it could account for all the gift card fraud.
Higher risk, lower reward.
Why risk physically going into stores to steal a few cards to note down numbers and scratch off things to note down PINs, then have to replace the scratch things, then have to replace the cards on the shelf, then have to wait for someone to legitimately buy them, when do something remotely like hack a database or something else?
Edit: Quick Google and it's listed here, so I stand corrected. https://www.chargebackgurus.com/blog/gift-card-fraud
safer to get egift cards these days
Safer, but definitely still not safe!
There's a current fraud scheme going where gangs use automated scripts to monitor compromised email inboxes that search daily for key words such as "gift card" or any digital assets that they can convert. You would be surprised how successful this scheme is.
The scripts monitor compromised emails via IMAP which doesn't support MFA.
Please advise where you purchased the Wish Cards.
Were they Egift or physical?
The OP has answered this.
Never purchase physical gift cards from any retail stores. Scammers are able to brute force the pin for the cards and drain your balance. This whole gift card business is extremely vulnerable to fraud.
Earlier I used to hear people giving away money from gift cards to scammers themselves now however you don't even need to give gift card details to anyone. The gift card balance is drained after your top up automatically.
For Cole related Giftcards, the new packaging has fully covered barcode. In addition, they are mostly only redeemable instore for a reason.
Hey @Karen59 just wondering whether you were able to get this resolved with Woolies, or did you just lose the money? Same thing just happened to one of my family members today ☹️
Woolworths take their time investigating (3 business days of being worried for me) then refunded my money.
Thanks for the update, really appreciate it. I'm glad things were sorted out for you eventually. I'm hoping they'll be able to sort it out for my family too 😑
I received two $200 physical Wish Gift cards for Christmas. Just tried to use them for the first time today and they both declined. Went home to check the balance and both had somehow been used 4 days after I received them - one at Woolies Engadine and the other at Kirrawee, both stores I've never been to.
Emailed Woolies Gift Card support so will see what happens. I'm dumbfounded but at the same time not surprised this kind of thing is going on.
Woolworths should be banned and fined a huge penalty for selling these gift cards which their staff also knows are being misused and are very vulnerable. These days you get harassed by their staff even if you try returning anything. Woolworth's is getting more greedy. There needs to be more supermarkets. I have stopped shopping at Woolworths since this gift card harassment.
Good resolution on my end. I emailed them on Saturday, got an email response on Sunday, phone call and replacement eGift cards issued on Monday.
Apparently mine were used to purchase Winfield Blues lol
Obviously not a great situation, especially for you @Karen59 since you bought them for yourself, but glad you got a resolution too
Where did you purchase the cards from?