Back in December, 2006, I wrote a post on gift card scams and how online sellers had tried to sell off gift cards that have already expired. Even so, gift cards have remained the top gift item for the past five consecutive years. While some people think that we would be losing some money buying with gift cards, if you do not know your gift recipient too well, or if you are too hard pressed for time to pick out a personalized gift, or to custom make one, then there's no denying that gift cards are the best.
Recently, a guy, Andrew Sun, has been caught using fake gift cards to make purchases, many of them were electronics and gadgets, worth a total of USD750,000. Andrew Sun now faces six charges of recklessly dealing with the proceeds of crime and has been refused bail.
I know it's possible to scam money from unsuspecting buyers by selling expired gift cards but I really do not get how online merchants would be able to accept fraudulent gift cards. Perhaps Andrew Sun hacked the computer systems of these companies' websites?
Recently, a guy, Andrew Sun, has been caught using fake gift cards to make purchases, many of them were electronics and gadgets, worth a total of USD750,000. Andrew Sun now faces six charges of recklessly dealing with the proceeds of crime and has been refused bail.
I know it's possible to scam money from unsuspecting buyers by selling expired gift cards but I really do not get how online merchants would be able to accept fraudulent gift cards. Perhaps Andrew Sun hacked the computer systems of these companies' websites?
3 comments:
Reading the newspaper article about this guy, I think the gift cards were genuine but they were purchased fraudulently i.e. they skimmed other peoples credit cards to buy the gift cards. Then the gift cards were used to buy goods mostly at Myer.
Most probably these were genuine gift cards since they were accepted by merchants.
Why did Andrew Sun buy MOSTLY electronics/gadgets with these gift cards?
HHmmm :)
Easiest and quickest thing to sell on eBay! Mr Sun was a PowerSeller on eBay with over 14000 + feedback at about 98%! Now no longer registered! You think you would be able to trust that wouldn't you?
I was a victim unfortunately. Having said that, I'll ultimately get my money back through my credit card company.
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