ROSEVILLE, Calif — There’s a gift card scheme happening right now that has surprised even the Better Business Bureau (BBB). And the Roseville man who fell victim to it wants everyone to be on the lookout.
David Watson told ABC10 he bought the Visa gift cards for three of his co-workers.
“Everything seemed fine," Watson said, "I inspected the package because I know there’s fraud, so I really inspected the package carefully.”
He found out later that two of them were fake!
“One of the colleagues opened it up and sent me a text and said, ‘Haha, that’s funny,'" Watson said. “He sent me a picture and there was a calling card.”
The Visa gift cards were taken out and replaced with calling cards. Those calling cards had pictures of the original Visa gift cards printed on the back of them.
Watson showed ABC10 the cards, pointing out that only the barcode shows in the packaging. The majority of the card is covered. He said he believes those who stole the real cards waited for the copies to be scanned and loaded.
“I’m amazed at the creativity that these consumers have to go through and [what] these scam artists do to scam people for a little bit of money,” said Alma Galvan with the Better Business Bureau.
Though the BBB says tricksters get more creative each year, there are still some things you can look out for so you don’t lose any money.
“If you see any scratches or if it's bent or if the advertisement on the back doesn't match the name on the card, be extra leery about that, too,” Galvan said. “That means the card was taken out or another one was replaced."
The BBB also says to save your receipts and let federal agencies know what happened if you are tricked. They also encourage everyone to report it on their Scam Tracker page.
Watson says he is in talks with Visa about what happened to him and is confident that he will get his money back.
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