As the saying goes, if you walk by the river often enough, your shoes are bound to get wet. One of the biggest risks in the gift card game is having your card stolen. Once that happens, all your previous profits can be wiped out. That said, even if a card gets stolen, there are still ways to deal with it. Today I want to share some of my own experience handling stolen gift cards.

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【2/14 update】Using credit cards () that earn elevated rewards at supermarkets to buy Amazon gift cards at grocery stores is one of the best ways to acquire discounted Amazon gift cards in large quantities. However, you need to be extremely careful when purchasing them. Try to choose newly issued versions of the gift card, and inspect the card for any signs that it has been tampered with. After checkout, it is best to open the gift card on the spot and check whether the scratch-off strip covering the pin on the back shows signs of having been removed and reapplied. If possible, load the gift card to your account as soon as you buy it to minimize the risk of theft. Below is milesperday's story about stolen Amazon gift cards:

This author often shares interesting new information.

Background on gift cards

Many people may find it strange that merchants like issuing gift cards, and sometimes even sell them at a discount. The reason is actually simple: gift cards are effectively an interest-free loan from the buyer to the merchant. For careless users, part of the balance may go unused and be forgotten, or the gift card may simply be lost. In those cases, the merchant is essentially getting free money.

Gift cards, especially EGCs, are really just a string of numbers plus a Pin. If someone can brute-force or guess the number, the card can be stolen very easily. Most people who discover their gift card has been drained either chalk it up to bad luck or assume they misremembered the balance. As a result, gift card thieves have become increasingly aggressive. In reality, recovering a stolen gift card is often not that difficult. If you are willing to handle it carefully and keep following up, the issue can often be resolved. In this article, I will go over several ways to deal with stolen gift cards, along with examples and lessons from my own experience.

How to confirm your gift card was stolen

Before doing anything else, the most important step is to confirm that your gift card really was stolen. Once you rule out the possibility that you or a family member used it, then theft is the likely explanation. The more information you have about the stolen gift card, the easier it will be to file a claim. In general, you can gather information in the following ways:

  • Check the Balance on the gift card’s official website: Most gift cards allow you to check the balance online to confirm whether the card has been stolen. If the balance is wrong or you get an error message, there is a good chance the card has already been compromised.
  • Check transaction history on the gift card’s official website: Some gift cards let you view where and how much was spent online. The most typical examples are Visa/Master gift cards. The back of the card usually lists the website for balance checks; after logging in with the card number, CVV, and expiration date, you can often see the full transaction history and quickly determine whether the card was used fraudulently. Another example is the Target gift card: when you check the balance online, it may show the locations and amounts of all transactions. If those locations do not match yours, then the card was clearly stolen.
  • Contact the merchant associated with the gift card: After confirming possible theft through one of the first two methods, you can contact the merchant that issued the gift card. Usually, if you provide the card number and Pin, some merchants can also tell you where and how much was spent, which can help confirm fraud. For example, Sears and Best Buy may sometimes provide this kind of information. However, not every customer service agent will share it, so you may need to ask for a Supervisor. Of course, some merchants may require a police report or similar documentation before providing details, which makes things more complicated.
  • Watch forums, blogs, and other reports: If you found a deal for a gift card on a website or forum and later discovered the card was stolen, check the original site where the Deal was posted. If the theft is widespread, other people will often mention it in the comments, which can help you gather more information.

You may need only one of the methods above to confirm that your gift card was stolen. At that point, you can start the claims process right away, or you can use multiple methods to improve your chances of success. After all, the more you know, the better your odds.

How to seek reimbursement for a stolen gift card

Once you have confirmed the theft, the next step is to start the claims process. The available options generally go from simple to more complicated, and you can decide how much time and effort you want to spend trying to recover the value of the stolen gift card. So below, I will lay out the usual order in which to try different solutions. You can work through them one by one.

File a claim with the merchant that sold you the gift card

This is the most obvious and most direct first step. After all, you bought the gift card from them, and they have some responsibility to ensure that the card they sold you actually contains the advertised value. It is also usually the most efficient route, since they have your purchase record.

Claims for gift cards bought in a physical store: If you bought the gift card in person, it helps to prepare the following when talking to the store: the stolen gift card, the purchase receipt, the activation receipt, the credit card used to pay, and the billing statement for that credit card. If you cannot find the receipt, you can still tell the store the date of purchase, the store location, the gift card merchant, and the denomination. In many cases, the merchant can find your purchase in their system. After confirming the transaction, the store will typically contact the merchant associated with the gift card. They may also be able to obtain some transaction records to verify whether the card was actually used by you. Once that is confirmed, they will often issue a refund. Of course, the store may refuse to help by citing a no-return/no-exchange policy on gift cards. In that case, you may need to gather the evidence yourself and then go back and argue your case.

Claims for gift cards bought online: Generally speaking, the first step is to call customer service and provide the gift card details, the confirmation email you received at the time of payment, and the Order Number. If you are not satisfied with the result, make sure to escalate to a supervisor. Frontline agents often have limited authority, while a supervisor may have more tools available and may even be able to issue a refund directly. That said, gift cards bought online can be more troublesome, since you cannot simply walk into a store and insist on help. It is common to get bounced around between different parties. For example, if you bought an E-gift card on eBay and it was stolen, you may end up having to work with eBay, PayPal, and the seller to resolve the issue.

Contact the merchant associated with the gift card

Sometimes the merchant that sold you the gift card is unwilling to help, often because they cannot determine whether the card was actually stolen or simply used by you. In that case, you can contact the merchant associated with the gift card and ask them to provide supporting evidence, such as the transaction location and amount, or the account to which the gift card was redeemed. If you persist, merchants will often provide at least some information. There is another possibility as well: the theft may have been caused by the merchant itself, such as a database leak or a compromised code generation system. In those situations, the merchant may directly offer a reissue or refund.

No matter what, if you hit a wall with the merchant that sold you the gift card, the next step is to try working with the merchant associated with the gift card instead.

Contact the credit card or payment method used to buy the gift card

Maybe neither merchant will help you, and they may just keep passing you back and forth. Even asking for a supervisor might not get you anywhere. If you don’t want to waste time, you can try resolving it through the payment method you used to buy the gift card. Most credit cards now offer Purchase Protection, and you can file a dispute for the gift card charge online or by calling customer service. In my view, the following terms may apply:

  • Not Satisfied with the purchase: If you bought a gift card with an incorrect balance, you are obviously not satisfied with the purchase. You contacted the merchant and asked for a refund, but the merchant refused.
  • Item was stolen: If you report it to the credit card company under this reason, they will likely ask you to provide proof that the gift card was stolen, or even proof that you filed a police report.

After you file the dispute, the credit card company will step in and contact the merchant that sold the gift card to resolve the issue, and you can simply wait for the result. In general, credit card companies have dedicated departments that handle these cases, so they are often more efficient than trying to solve it yourself. Sometimes the merchant does not want to keep investigating and may simply issue a refund. AMEX credit cards have a pretty good reputation in this area. Below is the Purchase Protection policy for the AMEX Premier Gold Rewards card if you want to take a look:

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One thing to note: before a dispute is filed, the credit card company will usually require that you first try contacting the merchant yourself. Only if that fails will they step in. A normal dispute will not affect your relationship with the credit card company, nor will it affect your credit score.

Contact Better Business Bureau (BBB)

Besides asking your credit card company to intervene, you can also turn to the Better Business Bureau (BBB), which is somewhat like a consumer protection association in the US. Just search for the merchant and its location, and you can open a case regarding the stolen gift card.

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After receiving your request, the BBB will also contact the merchant to help resolve the issue, and the merchant is required to respond to you within the specified time. This is also a good option, since you do not have to spend your own energy going back and forth with the merchant; you can just wait for the response.

File a police report

If the stolen gift card amount is large and the merchant requires a Police Report before they will handle it, you can choose to go to your local police station or submit a report online. Generally speaking, the police will not investigate or solve this for you, because these cases require a lot of manpower and resources, and the amount involved is usually not large from their perspective. Of course, we are not really expecting them to solve it. The main goal is to get a report number, which can make communication with the merchant much easier.

Small Claims Court (small claims court)

In the US, filing a lawsuit is not especially difficult. If a gift card of moderate value is stolen, you can also sue in small claims court. In general, merchants do not want to go to court, because whether they win or lose, they still have to spend a lot on various costs. So when they receive a small claims court notice, they will often come to you and try to negotiate a resolution. Of course, this approach also takes some time and effort, so you should decide based on your own situation whether it is worth using.

Class suit

If gift card theft involving this merchant is especially serious and affects a large number of people, you can also join with other victims and file a class action against the merchant. For the specific situation, consult an attorney. However, if the reasoning is sound, this type of case is generally easy to win. Merchants will often try to settle out of court in advance.

Several examples of handling stolen gift cards

Target gift card bought from Raise.com was stolen

Raise is a website that sells secondhand gift cards, and I have bought many discounted gift cards there. Once, when I was checking out online with a Target gift card worth around $500, it showed that the card had been Frozen. After trying a few times to confirm the situation, I first called Target customer service and learned that the card had been stolen and that Target had already frozen it. Then I contacted Raise.com customer service and explained the situation. After the representative submitted a refund request for me, I received the Refund in 3 days. Of course, this was also thanks to Raise.com’s own 100days-Guarantee. For an introduction to Raise.com, see:

Actually, buying secondhand gift cards can sometimes be an advantage, because secondhand gift card marketplaces generally provide a refund policy for a certain period of time. If you will use your gift card within 100 days, then buying discounted gift cards on Raise means you do not need to worry too much even if the card is stolen.

iTunes gift card sold by PayPal Digital on Ebay.com

Handling purchases on eBay can be very troublesome because multiple platforms and payment methods are involved. However, that has both advantages and disadvantages. The advantage is that if a gift card you bought on eBay is stolen, you can contact the seller for a resolution, request a refund through eBay, open a case with PayPal, or dispute the charge through your credit card. The disadvantage is that because there are so many possible ways to resolve it, all the platforms may keep passing you around, wasting a lot of your time.

Some time ago, I bought a $400 Itunes gift card from PayPal Digital and had not used it yet. Later, I saw reports in forum threads and blog comments that this batch of gift cards had been stolen. I immediately did the following:

  • Checked blog comments and forums: mainly to understand the situation and see how others were handling stolen gift cards
  • Contacted Apple customer service via online chat and asked them to check whether these itunes Codes had already been redeem(ed) (these gift cards do not allow balance checks, only whether they have been redeem(ed)). The representative said they had already been redeem(ed), so I confirmed that the cards had been stolen.
  • Called PayPal_Digital and explained the situation: I called 877-569-1148, verified my identity with my PayPal email and the last four digits of my SSN, and provided the purchase date and amount. After confirming the order, the representative said I needed to contact apple (the gift card merchant) to get a refund. I insisted that I bought it from them and they needed to resolve it. The representative said they needed to consult a supervisor, and after doing so, still told me I needed to contact apple. I was not satisfied and directly asked to be transferred to a supervisor. The supervisor took the call, understood the situation, and said they would give me a refund and that the money would be sent to my PayPal within 3 days. The money was actually refunded that same day.

Of course, if you open a case under the corresponding eBay order, PayPal will also respond. It is just that calling is more direct and faster. After a gift card is stolen, try to choose the fastest way to resolve it, because once a deadline passes, solving it may become more troublesome.

Master gift card was stolen

This is an example I saw on a blog. The blogger’s Mastercard gift card was stolen and the balance was drained to zero, so he first called the phone number on the back of the card and asked for a resolution. The issuer of the Mastercard gift card asked him to scan all the Recipts for purchasing the Mastercard gift card and send them in for investigation. More than a month later, he received a reissue(d) Mastercard gift card.

So be sure to keep your gift card purchase receipts until the card has been fully used, in case something like this happens.

My suggestions

  • Use your gift cards as soon as possible
  • Buy gift cards from legitimate merchants; if possible, buy Physical gift cards, and if you plan to hold them for a long time, try to avoid E-giftcard
  • Convert an Egiftcard into a Physical gift card in-store to reduce the chance of theft
  • Be sure to keep the receipt for any gift card purchase until the gift card has been fully used, in case of theft or other unexpected issues
  • If a gift card is stolen, make sure to proactively contact each merchant. If that really does not work, you can try resolving it through your credit card issuer.
  • Try to avoid using a gift card to buy another gift card; otherwise, you lose a layer of protection from your credit card issuer.