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Store-bought gift cards might seem like convenient stocking stuffers this time of year, but one Windsor, Ont., man says he’ll never purchase them again — after wasting $275 on cards drained by scammers.
“I felt like a total idiot,” said Mark Duguay, 66. “Very much embarrassed.”
Duguay said earlier this month, his seniors’ euchre club decided to do something nice for the club’s five main organizers.
A collection was taken up, generating $275. Duguay was then tasked with using the money to buy five Tim Hortons gift cards, each with $55 on them.
Duguay obtained the cards from a Dollarama location. The euchre club gave the cards to the organizers at a gathering on Dec. 10, as a collective show of appreciation.
Police are warning holiday shoppers about ongoing scams where gift card barcodes are tampered with so that scammers keep the cash value of the card. We spoke to experts about what to watch for while shopping.
Duguay said that the next day, each of the five recipients came back to him and said their cards couldn’t be redeemed for any amount.
He checked the cards himself with the same results. “It says ‘access denied’ on all the cards.”
‘There’s nothing we can do’
Duguay said he went back to the Dollarama location to try to get a refund, but was told he needed to take up the problem with Tim Hortons — since he couldn’t readily prove to the store that the cards weren’t used by the recipients or by himself.
“They kept saying, ‘There’s nothing we can do,'” Duguay said.
In a statement to CBC Windsor, Dollarama advises that its customer service teams review gift card-related issues “on a case-by-case basis to determine appropriate resolution, as each card issuer has its own policies regarding reimbursement and replacement.”
Dollarama said its stores have measures in place to help reduce the risk of gift card fraud. “However, our ability to prevent fraudulent activity is limited once a transaction is completed and the gift card leaves our premises.”
Tim Hortons did not respond to a request for comment.
Consumers warned of ‘gift card draining’
Jennifer Matthews, CEO of the Better Business Bureau for Western Ontario, said what happened to Duguay is “unfortunately, not an uncommon experience, especially at this time of year.”
In recent years, the Better Business Bureau has regularly warned the public of a scam known as “gift card draining.”
“When these cards are in a common area of the store, what these scammers do very well is they take the cards and tamper with that code on the back … and return those cards to the shelf,” Matthews explained.
“So once somebody comes in and buys those gift cards, they are activated at the point of sale. The scammer has [the information], and they can drain the card of everything that the purchaser thought was going to be on the card as a gift.”
Tips to help prevent getting scammed
Chuck Bell, advocacy programs director for Consumer Reports, said it’s a good habit to check a gift card from a rack for signs of tampering — such as damage to the protective strip on the back.
But as the sophistication of scamming techniques grows, it’s not always physically evident that a criminal has the card’s information.
“It could also be a hacking problem,” Bell said. “Sometimes there’s more of a technological angle.”
Consumer Reports recommends that gift givers consider ordering gift cards online or only trusting cards that are stored behind the counter.
Duguay said the five people who were gifted the Tim Hortons cards have been understanding.
But he’s worried about what the rest of his euchre club — especially those who contributed to the $275 — thinks about him now.
“It’s like I’m the one who stole the money,” he said. “They all know [he got scammed]. But at the end of the day, how do I explain that? It’s just my word against whatever is going on now.
“I’ll never buy a gift card, ever again.”
