Crime

Think Twice Before Getting Those Gift Card Stocking Stuffers

Maybe cash really is king.

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woman holding phone with online shopping and a credit card

The true meaning of the holidays is before us: consumerism! Each December, we are burdened with the obligation to either get a thoughtful gift for our friends and family or face their wrath for a couple of months. The best gift is something specifically detailed to their passions (or their Amazon wishlist if they’re kind enough to be that transparent), but who has enough time to sleuth around for what Timmy is into nowadays when you have to make your weekly billable quota. Thankfully, there’s an old standby that works just as well as tailored gift giving — gift cards! At least until the card thieves stole Christmas. From Fox:

Law officers across the country are warning about new twists in gift card scams.

“They heat up these envelopes to where they can open them as carefully as they can, remove the card, and actually cut the top of the card off. They cut the top. Remember this is the code that gives you access to the money to the person you give the card to. They take the bottom half of the card, put it in the bottom half of the envelope, and just like that, you have a brand new gift card you think you’re getting for your person for Christmas,”…An Arizona retail theft task force seized 10,000 gift cards, all now worthless.

“We seized more than 10,000 of these cloned gift cards in Arizona this week. But obviously, we know that’s just the tip of the iceberg,” said Arizona Attorney General Kris Mays.

Somewhere the Grinch is wringing his hands with glee. Fear not though, there’s a similar gift that’s even more versatile than gift cards: cold, hard cash! Here’s your permission to skip the foreplay of finding a Christmas-themed card to hide the money in — just hand the bills over with a smile.

Happy holidays!

Gift Card Scams Come With New Twists, Law Officers Warn [Fox]

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Chris Williams became a social media manager and assistant editor for Above the Law in June 2021. Prior to joining the staff, he moonlighted as a minor Memelord™ in the Facebook group Law School Memes for Edgy T14s.  He endured Missouri long enough to graduate from Washington University in St. Louis School of Law. He is a former boatbuilder who cannot swim, a published author on critical race theory, philosophy, and humor, and has a love for cycling that occasionally annoys his peers. You can reach him by email at cwilliams@abovethelaw.com and by tweet at @WritesForRent.

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