Not even gift cards are safe from scammers

Buying some gift cards for Christmas? Don’t get scammed.

Like so much else these days, gift cards have become a prime target for fraudsters, costing Canadian shoppers millions of dollars a year. (The Retail Council of Canada reported $5.7 million lost to gift card scams in 2024 — up from $3.8 million 2021.)

Last week alone, police in both Hamilton and Waterloo Region announced major busts involving fraudulent gift cards. In the Hamilton case, police allege a man was “manipulating” cards on display at a store by replacing the barcodes with ones that belonged to cards he already had.

“As a result, when an unsuspecting customer purchased one of the altered cards, the monetary value loaded at the checkout would activate only the card held by the suspect, leaving the purchaser with a worthless card,” Hamilton Police said in a news release.

Ritesh Kotak is not the least bit surprised by the recent headlines. A lawyer and cybercrime expert, he is our guest on tonight’s episode of Closer Look.

Hosted by Village Media’s Michael Friscolanti and Scott Sexsmith, and produced by Derek Turner, Closer Look is a new daily podcast that goes way beyond the headlines with insightful, in-depth conversations featuring our reporters and editors, leading experts, key stakeholders and big newsmakers.

Fresh episodes drop every Monday to Friday at 7 p.m. right in your local news feed — and on the show’s dedicated website: closerlookpodcast.ca. Of course, you can also find us wherever you get your favourite podcasts.

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