B.C. man shocked after $700 drained from his Walmart gift cards

  • I submitted this article because I didn't know about the new(?) type of fraud around gift cards. From the article:

    > Walmart's gift cards are worthless until customers load them with cash. Once loaded, the company requires shoppers to input a card's hidden security code when using it to make purchases online, but not at self-checkout.

    > Wilson says a fraudster could easily take photos of a bunch of the cards' bar codes at Walmart, and then try to buy goods with them at self-checkout at a later date — in the hopes the cards have since been loaded with cash.

    > "It's sort of, like, egregious," he said. "All the cards in Walmart are on bulk display. The bar codes are in plain sight."