How To Avoid Scams With Gift Cards with webroot?

Hackers are constantly finding new ways to compromise your privacy and security. They have now found a new method to hack into your digital lives. The all-new gift card fraud technique. Hackers have come up with multiple methods to con you into believing that these gift card scams exist.

This gift card fraud is carried out using a variety of methods including voice SMS, text SMS and phone calls. They pretend to be representatives from various authorized centers and ask you to pay with gift cards. After you reply positively, they will use this opportunity to take your financial and personal information.

We will highlight some important points to help you better understand these gift card scams. We will also discuss the ways to avoid being victim to these scams and how to protect yourself from being scammed.

These scams can be easily identified and avoided by following some simple steps, as described in the blog posted at Webroot.com/safe.

The Scam Behind Gift Card Fraud

You will understand high-pressure techniques if you are familiar with them. Some tax officials claim that these scammers use SMS and phone calls to con you. They will tell you that your financial situation is grave and that if you don't respond quickly, you could be subject to tax laws or face financial loss. To avoid this, the victim must share details of their gift card and the PIN that allows them to purchase any item they wish to. They also have other ways to trick people. We will list the most popular types of these scams in the following section.

Scams involving gift cards

You pretend to be the IRS

This is the most popular gift card fraud that has occurred in recent years. This scam involves a scammer pretending to be an IRS official and telling you that you must pay taxes. You will be arrested if you don't pay your taxes on time. There is only one way to get out of this mess: You can pay them by gift card.

Tip- IRS is not one of these departments that communicates with residents via text or phone. To provide any information about paying taxes, they will always send you a written notice.

Pay Attention To The Cashier

In the past, it was revealed that cashiers of various stores had partnered with fraudsters to help them make their wrongdoings happen. The question now is how do these scams work? There are many ways that these scams can be carried out. A buyer may give you a gift certificate that isn't activated when he purchases a giftcard from a store. He can use the gift card to buy gifts for himself while he waits.

Tip: Be careful when purchasing a gift card at a store. You should ensure that the gift card you receive has been activated. It is safer to buy a gift card online than to fall for this scam.

Use Magstripe Readers

A magstripe reader can reveal the secret electronic number on the card's magnetic stripe. They then put the card back on display and make purchases using it.

Tip: To avoid falling for this scam, don't buy a gift certificate that has been displayed.

Scams With Online Gift Cards

There are sites that sometimes offer great deals on gift cards. These sites offer gift cards at a fraction of the cost.

Tip: Make sure you only buy gift cards from official websites. Do not fall for the fake offers they offer.

Conclusion

We can see from the past that scammers have used to con you. You should not answer any text message or phone call asking for your gift card number, or financial information. We have also provided some scam-specific tips that will help you to respond better to such calls and text messages.