Terry Caliendo

ON December 19, 2017

The Walmart Gift Card Fraud Scam that Walmart Doesn't Care to Fix (Store 9115 RD)

POSTED IN:

Receiving Walmart Gift Cards for $1,500

My wife runs a local non-profit, Foster Kinship, that helps kids and their families.  Recently another non-profit purchased three $500 gift cards from a local Walmart store for a total of $1,500.  They gave the gift cards to Foster Kinship to purchase gifts for 50 kids as Christmas presents.

Very excited to get the gifts for the kids, my wife went to Walmart the day she received the gift cards (two days after purchase).  She loaded up three shopping carts full of toys and got in line to purchase the toys with her freshly donated gift cards.

But when she presented the cards to the checkout person, her joy turned to shock.

Walmart Gift Cards were Already Fraudulently Used

The cards had already been used.  All three cards were completely and perfectly emptied out without even a penny left.  She'd been completely robbed!

What Happened to the Walmart Gift Card Balances?

Panicking, my wife asked to talk to a manager to try to figure out what was happening to her.  This was a nightmare!

The manager printed out a couple receipts showing basic information of the transactions on the cards.

Walmart receipts showing gift card fraud at store 9115 RD

The three cards were each filled on December 7th, 2017 with $500 at store "5070 AC" which is located at 5200 S Fort Apache Rd, Las Vegas, NV 89148.  Then they were all completely spent, to the penny, the next morning at store "9115 RD", which I'm guessing is Walmart.com.

My wife argued with the store manager, telling him she did not spend this money and it was fraud.  The money was meant to buy Chistmas gifts for kids!  Needy kids!

The manager continually insisted there was nothing he could do.  The store she was purchasing the toys from was not where the cards were purchased, so the manager told my wife to go to the store the cards were purchased at with the original receipt to see if the manager at that store could do anything.

Really he was blowing her off.

Trying the 800 Number on the Walmart Gift Card

Regardless, my wife called the person at the non-profit that originally purchased the gift cards who subsequently went over to the other store and talked to the manager.  The manager there said he could do nothing.  He said it's a typical scam and Walmart doesn't care to fix it because they have fraud insurance.

So my wife turned to calling the 800 number on the gift cards.  One of the options is to press #2 if you want to"report your gift card lost or stolen".  When pressed, there's a recorded voice that says, "If you are calling to report your gift card lost or stolen, please refer to "Walmart gift card terms and conditions" on Walmart.com.

Walmart's Gift Card Terms and Conditions

Doing a quick search will land you on the "Walmart Gift Card Terms and Conditions" page.  There you'll be absolutely amazed to see that they will not replace lost or stolen cards.

Lost or Stolen Gift Card. Lost or stolen cards will not be replaced. Neither Wal-Mart.com USA, LLC nor Wal-Mart Stores Arkansas, LLC shall have liability to you for (i) lost or stolen Walmart Gift Cards or (ii) use of any Walmart Gift Cards by third parties through your Walmart.com account. You are solely responsible for keeping the password for your Walmart.com account safe and for any activity conducted under your account.

There is nothing on the page about what to do if the card is fraudulently used, but I'm guessing Walmart categorizes that under the "stolen" category.  Though the cards weren't stolen, the information was stolen and used to make purchases.

Now I'm guessing that most people that fall victim to fraud on their gift card don't do much fighting for it because it's probably a smaller amount.  I'd guess the gift cards are usually filled with $10 - $50 dollars.  So whomever is the victim of this fraud likely tries for a little while to get their money back before giving up.  It's probably not worth the hassle for many.

My wife, fighting for $1,500 to be spent on 50 of her kids, was not about to give up!

Contacting the Local News

We contacted all the local news agencies.  It was a bomb of a story!  I pictured it reading, "$1,500 in Walmart gift cards, meant to buy toys for kids, fraudulently stolen from local non-profit; Walmart doesn't care".

The headline needed to be cleaned up, but you get the idea.  It had bite.  Presents stolen from needy kids and a big corporate entity not caring.

Two local news programs jumped on the story and interviewed my wife.  Doing their diligence for the story, both news agencies contacted Walmart corporate.

This is what we needed... corporate to see there might be bad press which is not good for their brand.

And react Walmart corporate did.  They refunded the money by giving us new un-tampered gift cards.

The news usually drops their stories from their websites after a while but here are the local news stories:

The bottom link above has to videos.  See the icons below the video player to play the original news segment.

Making National News

The story was even picked up by national news on the NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt:

We got a bit lucky in that we are trying to do a good thing and the press was willing to help.  But just know that Walmart does not have a process or solution for everyone else who's gift cards are fraudulently used.

If you want to see how many people are getting screwed by this scam, do a quick Google search for "walmart gift card scam 9115 RD"

I'm guessing that what it would cost to combat the fraud problem would cost Walmart more than is lost in fraud.  And really, they don't lose anything because they aren't refunding the typical cases of fraud.  They are just ignoring it.

How the Store-Bought Walmart Gift Card Fraud Scam Works

Now, I'm betting you are probably wondering how the fraud scam works.  And here is what I've discovered.

Below is a picture of one of the gift cards that were fraudulently used.

Walmart gift card with fraudulent scratch off strip used in scam 9115 RD

Besides the numbers I blacked out, do you see anything funny?

Look closely at the scratch away strip.  See it yet?  Not only is it quite crooked, there's a line of tape around the scratch off area.  Here's a close up with some arrows:

walmart gift card showing fraudulent scratch off strip

I hadn't see the cards until my wife got home after the whole situation, but as soon as I looked at the strips, I knew something was funny.

These cards are produced by machines by the thousands.  Machines usually don't put stickers on slightly crooked.  Plus, I've never noticed the tape line around a scratch off before and thought to myself, I doubt these scratch off things are ever taped on; I'd think there's a machine that directly prints the scratch-off coating on the card.

It turns out I was right.  Here is a picture of a legitimate gift card's scratch off strip.

legitimate Walmart gift card with untampered scratch off strip

There's no tape around the scratch off area and it's only a tiny bit crooked.

Here is a picture of a card that has the original scratch off (left) and one that has been scratched and replaced with a taped-on tamper strip (right).

walmart tampered gift card vs untampered

So here is how I think the scam plays out.

The gift cards are just hanging on a rack in the main area of the store available for anyone to grab.  The gift cards are not activated, so Walmart doesn't care if you steal a few.  They can't be used in that condition.

But the scammers are smarter than this situation.  The scammer grabs a bunch of cards and either goes to the bathroom or takes them home to work on them.  The scammer does some work to get the cards out of the package and write down the card number.

Then they scratch off the scratch-off area and write down the pin number.

Next the scammer puts a new, taped-on, scratch off area over  the pin number.  Yes, this is real, it's easy to purchase Security Tamper Evident Scratch Off Labels Stickers for a few bucks on Amazon.

Security Tamper Strips used in Walmart gift card fraud scam

To the typical purchaser, the scratch off looks perfectly fine, like it's never been scratched off. It doesn't even matter if it's crooked, because the common purchaser doesn't know what they are looking at.  I even showed people the cards with the taped on scratchers, told them about the taped area, that it was crooked, and they still couldn't readily see the issue; they really had to stare at it.

Finally the scammer puts the card back in the casing and puts it back on the front of the rack.

Then they go home and simply continually check the card balance either online or through the 800 number.  Walmart probably sells tons of gift cards every day, especially around the Holiday season, so it probably doesn't take long for the card to be purchased and funded.

As soon as the scammer sees money on the card, they head to Walmart.com and make purchases using the card number and pin number.

I'm guessing they ship the items to an unsuspecting address.  Probably they find a house that someone only lives in part of the year.  Or maybe an old guy that never leaves his house.

The scammer can track the package and head over to the house and just grab it off the stoop once it's delivered; likely able to set up accounts to receive texts as soon as the package is delivered.

Nobody at the house complains, because they weren't expecting the package.  The scammer could probably even put a name on the package that doesn't match the name of the people at the house (it will still get delivered) and if anyone questions them, they can just say it was their package and it was delivered to the wrong address.

Or maybe they just deliver the stuff to their own homes.  Since Walmart isn't even looking into this scam and doesn't care about it, they can probably do just that and not get caught.

If Walmart really wanted to investigate, I believe they easily could.  There has to be record of the ip address that was used to make the purchase with the stolen numbers.  That ip could be traced (ip addresses are like house street addresses for computers).  If the scammer was really careful, they may have purchased from an IP address at a place with open WiFi (ie Starbucks), but this scam is so simple and since the scammers are getting away with it, I'd bet the scammers aren't being that careful.

Or Walmart could pay attention to the stores where this is happening most and put security cameras on the gift card section and catch the person who slips the cards on and off.  There's no crime there, but Walmart could activate the cards and trace the whole interaction that takes place afterwords back to the perpetrator.  That's just a few ideas off the top of my head.  I'm sure a good security expert could come up with many other ways to trace the scam to a scammer.

How to Protect Yourself from the Walmart Gift Card Scam

First, realize that  although these gift cards look like credit cards, they are not credit cards, and therefore they do not have the protections of a typical credit card!

This fraudulent scam is obviously one where someone else was able to get a hold of the card.  So now that you know about it, you can check the pin scratch off strip to see if it looks funny if buying a card that is not locked up in a case somewhere.

But really, the lesson here is don't buy gift cards off the rack.  It's probably safe to buy them online.

I'd think biggest protection would be not to buy the gift cards with cash. Buy gift cards with your credit card, such that you have recourse with a company that is not the vendor of the gift card should something go wrong.  I haven't verified it, but I'm betting you can tell your credit card company that there was fraud on something that you purchased with their card and they will give you your money back (credit card companies want you to feel safe using their cards, because they want you to use them as much as possible).

This is probably where Walmart's fraud insurance kicks in.  Walmart would get what's called a "charge back" from the credit card company which returns the money to you, the purchaser.  Then Walmart's insurance kicks in to cover the loss.  Or the losses are so small relative to their gargantuan revenues that they just don't care about the small losses.

Incidentally, one story that ran just before my wife's stories was about how an Amazon customer had their package stolen right off their front porch and amazon immediately refunded their purchase without question.  So maybe try buying Amazon Gift Card online as they at least have a nicely posted policy that isn't blatantly saying they don't care: Amazon Gift Card Policy on Lost or Stolen Gift Cards.

Personally, I predict sometime in the not-too-distant future there will be a class action law suit against Walmart (and possibly other companies; as the whole gift card thing may be handled through a 3rd party service) that are ignoring this type of fraud.   People are getting screwed and Walmart is looking the other way while profiting from it.

47 comments on “The Walmart Gift Card Fraud Scam that Walmart Doesn't Care to Fix (Store 9115 RD)”

  1. This happen to me. My job gave me a gift card for Christmas. When I returned to my job after the holiday I found the gift card on my desk under my notepad. When I checked the balanced it said $0.00. I thought it was a joke but when I checked the transactions it said the money on it was already spent.
    I checked our office alarm system to make sure who came in and out of the office. The only person who came in that day was me.

    My boss and I contacted Walmart 1st we got a print out of the transaction history. It showed it was spent at store 9115. They told us that was an online transaction and to call the number in back of the card. Which I had already done so a few time, again thinking it was a joke. The number on back of the card is just an automated system. No live person to speak to.

    So I called our local Walmart again and spoke to about 5 people .
    Conclusion: There was nothing they could do. They are not responsible for lost or stolen gift cards.

    1. I'm sorry it happened to you. Thanks for sharing your story. It would be great if this article got enough attention that Walmart would fix this problem or do a better job of distinguishing between Lost/Stolen vs Fraud such that there's recourse for legitimate people that have been wronged.

  2. We got hit with this as well. My wife purchased 4 cards for a total of $1,200, two for $100, and two for $500. Only one of the $500 gift cards actually had a balance when received by the gift recipients. So your suspicion of lower dollar amounts does not apply to all. Although, I have to admit that my wife relayed the story that the folks at the counter were surprised at the dollar amounts at the time of purchase, and did limit the amounts to $500 maximum.

    Once we received the cards back, I took them to the local store and had them swiped for the transaction history, and they all showed the store number 9115 as yours did. We are located in Folsom, CA. We have been through the same revolving doors, call the number, go to the store multiple times, and we got the same message we aren't responsible, contact Walmart.com of call the number on the card.

    Since my wife used an ATM/Debit card I filed a claim with our bank, I am waiting to see how that pans out. I also filed a claim with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Walmart responded that they are not the appropriate company to manage this claim, so the issue remains open on that end with a follow left to the CFP.

    What an expensive lesson to learn, we end up spending $1,400 (twice as much as planned) as we have sent replacement money to all of the gift recipients that received the zero balance, of course that was in the form of a check. No more gift cards being purchased in our future.

    I have thought about our local news media, they have an investigative reporter by the name of Curtis, his segment is "Call Curtis"...

    1. Hi Mark,
      I'm sorry this also happened to you and for such big amounts.

      I'm guessing that the gift cards are handled by a 3rd party and that's why Walmart was able to respond that they are not the appropriate company.

      Please keep me updated on how your bank handles your request as well as any other information you may discover.

      Terry

  3. Got me too! Just found out today, recipient went to use card and balance was zero. Same thing, the store clerk printed out a slip referencing ‘9115’. I immediately went to store card was purchased and was told, after seeing receipt and ‘9115’, it was fraud. They can’t do anything and said for me to contact local police department and file a fraud report. No, I’m not going through this as they have more important things to do and will not put any attention to tracking down scammers! Ironically, the store where these $500 gift cards were purchased, mine was purchased there also! I WILL NEVER PURCHASE ANOTHER WALMART GIFT CARD! They’re aware of scam and do nothing about it? The local news stations need to ‘plaster’ this information all over their airwaves! Unfortunately, I purchased this card with cash; otherwise I would refuse to pay credit card. Someone, please get this vital information out to innocent, potential victims!

    1. Hi Dennis, thanks for sharing your story. It's mind boggling that they aren't doing anything about this issue. Maybe someday there will be some form of redemption and whomever (class action suit) can get names of affected people from here!

      I'm glad you documented your story. Amazing that it happened at the same location, which just shows they aren't doing anything to solve the problem.

      The most difficult part is getting this information to people before they have the problem. Nobody searches for the scam until it happens to them. We appreciated the news doing a story, but it pretty much died from there as far as tv goes.

      I do have a facebook page that you can share the story with your friends on facebook. Twitter. Or just post the link url from above in your browser and pasted it into a post.

      https://www.facebook.com/Terry-Caliendos-Blog-806783529482751/
      https://twitter.com/terrycaliendo

  4. Got me also ! I checked with AMEX to see if their "Purchase Protection" benefit covered this type of loss. The fine print states in the Purchases Not Covered terms: # 3. travelers checks, tickets of any kind, negotiable instruments (including but not limited to gift certificates,
    gift cards and gift checks), cash or its equivalent, rare stamps or coins;

    AMEX has always been top notch in customer service so I doubt any of the other credit card companies will reimburse the consumer for these fraudulent purchases with gift cards.
    I paid cash so I can't attempt to file a purchases protection claim.

    When I went to the store to inquire about what they could do and I got the same answers as everyone else..."we aren't going to do anything, call 1-800-walmart". I wanted to help a friend out and ended up I need help getting my money back. I wonder if buying a gift card online is any safer.

    I'm still thinking about calling the local news channel, this can't be happening to only a few of us!

    1. Hi Debra. I'm sorry it happened to you as well.

      I don't believe its happening to just a few people either... I'm getting a lot of action on this blog post and I'd venture to say the people doing research on the internet are only a fraction of the people it's happening to.

      Thanks for sharing your story. Maybe someday if we get enough comments/names on here someone will take notice.

  5. Hi! I was just scammed from an E-gift card. Went to use it and said I had 3 cents on it. The manager printed out the transaction and it came from 9115. I looked on my Wal-Mart account and they bought a laptop and it was shipped to FL. I don't even live in FL. Wal-Mart needs to take these scams alot more serious.

    1. Hi Carey - I'm sorry to hear. Having a problem with an E-gift card issue is a new issue I havn't yet heard... Did you purchase the e-gift card? I'd be curious how it was tied to your wal-mart account if someone else bought it? I'm also curious how the fraudulent person ordered through your account as I'd think beyond the e-gift card they would have needed to log into your account to order through your account (I'd suggest changing your password asap).

      Any further information you can provide will be helpful to others.

      1. I replied to the original lady but I'm not sure if you will see it so I just wanted to add some information that may or may not be helpful in regards to her post about her ecard issue as well for you with future gift card purchases.

        I know there are a lot of 3rd party websites that buy and sell gift cards, usually offering a small discount. On some of these sites, the buyer may not even realize they were purchasing it from a site that also buys them like that. I have (successfully) used these myself to do both buy and sell. I also know that occasionally there are issues where the original seller does some trickery/scamming. For example, the seller retains the gift card info, sells it to one of these sites, and then uses the gift card. Then the 3rd party site resells the gift card only to realize it's already been used. Now these 3rd party sites do validate the balance on the card when they initially get it. They probably aslo validate it before they resell too. But there's nothing they can do to stop the original owner from using that gift card in the future.

        HOWEVER, what all these reputable 3rd party sellers WILL do is refund you. (Which, as it stands now, Walmart does not do) One of these sites I'm most familiar with that offers a refund is raise.com. They offer a 1 year money back guarantee if your card ends up not working, having a 0 balance or a balance different than what you purchased and things like that.

    2. I see you wrote this a month ago so hopefully you've resolved this by now but I did you by any chance get this from some sort of 3rd party and not directly from walmart.com?

      I know there are lots of websites that buy and sell gift cards, usually offering a small discount. You may not even have realized you were purchasing it from a site that also buys them like that. I have used these myself to do both buy and sell. I also know that occasionally there are issues where the original seller does some trickery/scamming. For example, the seller retains the gift card info, sells it to one of these sites, and then uses the gift card. Then the 3rd party site sells someone like you the gift card only to realize it's already been used. Now these 3rd party sites do validate the balance on the card when they initially get it. They probably validate it before they sell too. But there's nothing they can do to stop the original owner from using that gift card in the future.

      What all these reputable 3rd party sellers WILL do is refund you. (Which as it stands now, Walmart does not do) One of these sites I'm referring to raise.com, which has a 1 year money back guarantee.

      1. It was a product replacement from Wal-Mart. I got the e gift card thru assurion. I did contact Wal-Mart as someone did hack into my Wal-Mart account and changed everything. The gal transferred me to corporate and I was refunded by my surprise. They also closed my old account as my bank card was attached to it. So I had to create a new account for Wal-Mart. But yea I did get my money back!!

        1. Thanks for following up. Yeah... so your issue was more tied to fraud on your Walmart.com account as opposed to an in-store gift card fraud scam.

          I'm glad you got your money back!

  6. My story is a bit different. My husband won a t.v. at his company Christmas party. Got it home, plugged it in, and it was damaged. So we contacted the company and they happily sent a picture of the receipt of purchase. I took the television back to Wal-Mart with receipt I had printed out. The lady at customer service then told me the balance of $362 would be placed on a gift card. She then scanned a card and I was satisfied. A week later my family all went to Wal-Mart to buy our new t.v.! We were all excited because my t.v. of 11 years had blown out and we've been watching a 19" for months! Well they swipe the card and said it was $0 balance. I flip out and ask for their store manager, the name of general manager, corporate numbers. This all started on December 20th 2017. I have since spoke to numerous people at the 800 number, emailed corporate, emailed their Cg department,spoke to managers at stores location,spoke to loss prevention manager. Finally loss prevention manager has found video tape and pictures of the people who used the stolen card number! I then file a police report and wait for loss prevention to give me the good news that I can get a store credit for the money that was proven to be stolen. Right? Well I wait and no phone call...... I call him to see what is going on? He tells me that unfortunately the store manager in Hesperia, ca, can not authorize anything over $100. He will have to now get permission from "corporate" and unfortunately there is no guarantee they will give it to me. And if they do not approve it that I can call the 800 number. What a joke! This has been the WORST customer service I have ever experienced. 38 days of calling and writing and waiting for answers.

    1. Wow... I'm sorry this happened to you as well.

      When you took the tv back and they put the credit on a gift card, did she grab the card off of the rack?

      I'm amazed the loss prevention manage could find video of the people that used the card. Was the video of them taking the card on and off the shelf to do the scam I describe in this post? Or did they somehow get a hold of your actual card after it was activated? ... I'm a bit confused on this part of your story.

      1. From the transaction print out they gave me, they were able to pin point the store the thefts fiscally used it at. They then went through their transactions for the day and were able to find video of them going inside the store and using a card with the same numbers as mine. The next day these people reloaded the card and made a 9115 purchase. Both transactions they did were the same exact dollar amount my card was for. Down to the penny. But still Wal-Marts store manager said he couldn't do anything for me. At least that is what I've been told by his employee's, but never by him.

  7. This just happened to me - my wife and I got a total of $2500 in gift cards from Sam's Club in March. 2 weeks ago, when trying to use one of the cards at a local Walmart we were told there's no balance on it. Took them a while but they eventually printed a transaction history showing the balance ($790) was used up in a Walmart in Texas (Store 0400).

    I went home to grab the 2 other gift cards ($750 each) to make sure the same thing hasn't happened but sure enough, the transaction history print-outs from Sam's Club show they were both used up in Texas (Store 0400 and 3213).

    The Walmart associate advised me to call the # at the back of the card but it was a total waste of time - like somebody here mentioned earlier.

    I also found out that my Walmart.com account was hacked and all 3 of the above mentioned gift cards were saved on it. I imagine the hacker/thief must have retrieved the gift cards information from the account and somehow used them in-store - probably by fabricating a magnetic stripe card with the details.

    I initiated a chat on Walmart.com hoping to get somebody who can look into it, and a week later I was directed to Stores/Customers Relation who then directed me to submit the fraudulent-use case to the Gift Card team. Another week later, today, the gift card team wrote back saying there's nothing they can do and advised me to dispute the original charge with my financial institution, and I did just that with Discover.

    Walmart seems to have upgraded Walmart.com and the security since (I was locked out of my account when trying to log into it from my wife's phone) and that's nice, but they don't seem to care much for the fraudulent activities that's already happened, despite knowing their website/system was flawed.

  8. The purpose of my adding my "2 Cents" to your post is that I'd like to see someone do the deep research into these crimes. I'm including information that could help them do that.

    I'm glad I found this post about fraudulently redeemed Walmart cards. I'm also very glad that your plight has been picked-up by news media. That really helps. So does your website's post about your experience and suspicions of how the fraud may have happened.

    #1 I would like to request that owner & moderator Terry Caliendo please leave the links I'm including in this post. It is my sincere hope that people doing research (class action lawyers, etc.) may be able to use OUR stories to find the solution to this ongoing fraud with ALL cash loaded gift cards. The links I'm including here may add another dimension to the search for stopping this ongoing financial devastation.

    What I know....

    Most of these money gift cards are created & managed by a company called, InComm/ITC Financial. The type of fraud Walmart customers have experienced is exactly what victims across the entire internet, as well as all brick & mortar customers are experiencing with these prepaid cards. The money is loaded, and without previously removing the silvering you discover your money is gone. Poof! Vanished. No recourse. The company informs you that YOU must have created an unsafe situation and YOU allowed this to happen. Too bad, so sad. Sucks to be you. Bye bye!

    InComm has their own re-loadable giftcards which has been plagued by the same thefts!

    Their Vanilla VISA card has a terrible reputation of being drained/frauded with no help offered their customers. The 2018 ToughNickel article, found here, spells out InComm's tactics:
    https://www.google.com/search?q=vanilla+gift+card+fraud&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-b-1

    If they can't keep their own customers funds safe, why would they do better with Walmart, or PayPal's funds ?

    A thumbnail sketch of InComm, written by Mike (ripped off for $1500):

    " InComm Holdings Inc has a subsidiary ITC Financial Licenses (ITCFL)
    which, as far as I know, is in a different location, quite small, and
    tightly coupled with InComm. They handle fraud research and disputes.
    The COO is Skeet Rolling who is also on the BBB Board of Directors for
    Atlanta. The team lead of his fraud investigation team is Jon Williams.
    This is the story of how they refused to investigate my fraud and how I
    investigated it myself and ultimately found that someone was embezzling
    money and identifying who it was." ~ Mike's story & findings:

    https://www.igobyplane.com/2016/01/22/paypal-my-cash-fraud-scam-embezzlement-resolved-how-i-caught-my-fraudster-when-incomm-refused-to-do-it/

    The difference with your situation is that Walmart has not listed on the card who the bank/company is that is managing the funds on their gift card accounts. My suspicion is that it is InComm. I would like to suggest that anyone who is serious about getting to the bottom of your money disappearing should research whether Walmart's account is managed by InComm.

    I'd love to do the research myself, to uncover how your Walmart giftcard funds are managed (my suspicion is InComm), but currently I do not have time. And besides, I've already done battle with InComm over money loaded onto 3 PayPal's giftcards. My money disappeared in the same exact way your Walmart money did, without the silvering being removed (appeared untouched). At first blush you may think our two problems are unrelated, but if InComm/ITC Financial is involved, I'm certain we're all dealing with the same loopholes that allow theft from all giftcards.

    Finally, this type of fraud is difficult for companies like Walmart, PayPal & all those merchant cards you can buy at the checkout line. Here's an article written for those businesses:
    https://chargebacks911.com/digital-gift-cards-balancing-risk-vs-reward/

    If anyone, lawyer, reporter or other sleuth, would like to question me further about what I've found, I'm most willing to help any way I can. I give site owner Terry permission to share my contact information (if there's a way to do that)

    I've documented my saga of the PayPal giftcard fraud here (I'm surprised PP has allowed my post to stay =)

    https://www.paypal-community.com/t5/About-Products-Archive/My-Cash-Card-500-Gone/m-p/994100#M8320

    It goes without saying that NONE of us will, or should, trust purchasing another gift card, but PLEASE save your friends, family, your kids friends, your work colleagues, church friends, anyone you care about NEVER BUY THIS TYPE OF GIFT CARD. It's better to be safe than sorry.

  9. I got hit for $1900 plus $98 in international calls in a Target gift card scam on the phone. The total will be well over $4100 because Target refuses to do anything though they are responsible for not alerting their credit card holders and refusing to allow the police person contact their law enforcement line even though they demand that this be done. So, it will be double.

  10. I get a bunch of Walmart gift cards through the Fedex reward program every year. I was just getting around to spending some from last year and suspiciously one of them only had 55 cents left on it. I thought maybe I used it but then another one came up with a $0 balance. Called Walmart and they said to go to the store and ask them to print a transaction history. Just like the article explains, I doubt they would do anything.

    Well, I just received a bunch of new gift cards, checked all of them immediately and the balance is there on all of them. When I scratched them, I found it very weird how basically the whole scratch-off peeled off rather than scratched away like I would expect with a scratch ticket. It doesn't look like the way a machine would process them. So I am pretty sure that all of these have been compromised and it's just a matter of time before someone uses them.

    When I called the local Walmart store they told me I need to take up issues with Fedex since they are the purchaser of the cards. Basically, Walmart doesn't care. I was hoping I could go in and swap them out with cards which didn't appear to be compromised. I did email Fedex to see if there is something I can do but the lesson learned here is only buy egift cards especially from Walmart. Those numbers are generated when you buy them so the only way theft could happen is if a hacker gets into their system and that is way less of a concern than physical gift card theft because I am sure Walmart will do something about a large event like that.

  11. I just had that experience this year. My niece in Spokane, WA sent me a Walmart gift card for $50. When I went to check the balance, because she didn't tell me the amount it was for, it was $0. I got a copy of her receipt and called Walmart. They "escalated" it. I was supposed to hear back in 2-3 days and it has been over 3 weeks now. My local store can't/won't do anything. They did give me the store number at which it was spent, and you guessed it, 9115RD. This is frustrating. It was "spent" the day before I got it in the mail!!

  12. I have a similar case. I registered a Walmart gift card with Walmart. Only spent a few dollars, the remainder of the balance was used in a seemingly Texas Store on the day i did not shop, and please note that I live in Connecticut. I contacted them a few times, I was promised a few times to get it resolved within 48 hours or 24 hours. But did not hear anything. Do you guys know, is any organization to go to? or any lawsuit for case like this?

  13. I registered a Walmart gift card with Walmart and used a few dollars, but then later on the remainder balance of the card was gone. I did a search it was used in a store in Texas ( I live in east coast) on the day I did not shop. I contacted Walmart a few times and every time I was promised a solution with 1 or two days. But so far Walmart did not solve the issue. Wondering if there is litigation/class action/complaint site for situation like this that I can go to? or if no, anyone interested in starting a class action?

  14. i purchased phones from walmart and they gave me 500$ egift as a rebate. the egift card was all used by someone in NY, I don't live in NY and don't know who used my electronic gift card. I asked walmart, they told they cannot do anything about it. It is not even a physical gift card to consider lost/stole, literally spoke with walmart for 10 hours. conclusion: walmart told they cannot do anything. All I can say is walmart doesnot have good security when sending email gift cards, wihtout your knowledge cards will get hacked and used. wamlart simply says sorry can't do anything.

  15. I get a bunch of Walmart gift cards through the Fedex reward program every year. I was just getting around to spending some from last year and suspiciously one of them only had 55 cents left on it

  16. It happened to me this way. I ordered a $200 gift card from Walmart, and they delivered a piece of plastic on November 14. I tried to register the card, but the website stated that the card had not been activated.

    I called the number on the back of the card. I called and wrote Walmart. I called and wrote Vanilla Visa® Gift Card Customer Care.

    Nothing.

    I called and wrote Discover Card, the card that I used to pay Walmart. They opened a dispute, but eventually denied my claim that Walmart had sold me a piece of plastic that was supposed to be good for $200, but was not good even as a bookmark.

    So, here I am - out $200. What other recourse to do I have?

  17. Happened in Corona California store number 1912 purchased a gift card for $25 went to use it a couple months later and $1.29 was left on it this card never left my possession and I never used it. It was frauded and walmart will do nothing to fix it. I think it is an inside job I hope one day there will be a class action lawsuit because this isn’t fair to harm honest people like us. The store manager and corporate would not solve the problem. I had the original receipt and card in my possession.

  18. This just happened to me today! Two days ago I went online and I had two separate gift cards from different months given to me and I was checking the balance on Walmart.com, it said my cards didn't exist. Last night I tried it again and they were both completely empty. I got the $140 back today though, just bad luck that it happened with two completely different gift cards. It said they were both used at Walmart 5119.

  19. Just found out today for me, $50 Card was purchased in Oct 2020 and went to day to use it. But balance zero as it used on Dev 1st 2020 with 3 transaction from Store '9115' as Store clerk printed out a slip referencing ‘9115’. They can’t do anything and said for me to contact 800 number and its referring gaft card terms. I am not sure why Walmart not taken action on this as this is happening since few years I WILL NEVER PURCHASE ANOTHER WALMART GIFT CARD! and loosing the trust on Walmart.

  20. Just had it happen to me in Charleston, SC. It was a $40 gift card some friends had given us. The girl at register traced the the history to that infamous store 9115 Rd!
    I don't think I will be buying gift cards as a present anymore. Time to go back to putting old fashioned cash in their hands.

  21. Happened to me earlier this month. I loaded 500 dollars and before i knew what had happened it was transferred to something called, "fluzpay", in New York. I had bought the card in Utah. I opened a claim, and was told they would investigate and get back to me within 20 days.

    It's day 17, and haven't heard back, so I gave them a call. At first, the cust. service rep claimed something was wrong with their system and she wouldn't be able to help me. When I started protesting, her system magically started working and she looked my info up and told me it hasn't been 20 days yet, so she couldn't do anything.

  22. I am glad I am not the only one, although it doesn't really help. 9/17/21 I purchased 2 gift cards for $500 each. This was made online for plastic cards. They arrived on 9/22/21. I had not received activation email as I should have so went online to fine the balance was $120 on each. The only transaction was them being loaded with $120 each. 9/22/21 Called Gift Card Team - they said the Walmart gift card system is down. Used Help chat feature on website - they see our purchase for $500 each and the card loaded with $120 each. They will pass to Gift Card Team and someone will call back. 9/23/21 automated system hung up on me twice, got through to Walmart support - gift card system down, called Gift Card Team spoke to Brian who hung up mid conversation, clicked chat feature on website and was directed to send an email, sent the emaail and response back was the domain name does not exist. 9/24/21 automated system disconnected, called Gift Card Team back and spoke with Brian who agreed there is a problem and it needs to be escalated to next level. It will take 3-5 business days. 10/1/21 day 5 of the 5 business days, called Gift Card Team spokewith Twendaya, sees the notes, agrees it has been escalated, and says it is obvious they have not gotten around to it yet and nothing can be done. She can't give me a phone number, a supervisor, an email address, just that she can send a note to the escalation team but all that will do is put me at the back of the pile. I work for a very small non-profit working with people who have disabilities. We have been purchasing gift cards where people purchase their groceries to help the the increased prices of things during the pandemic. I think my next step will be to get my state senator involved who is hot on consumer advocacy. But, does anyone have any kind of phone number or department to call to get this rectified before I bring in other people?

  23. Well I got a gift card from Walmart on Sunday as a gift and I checked the balance online Monday. I went to use it on Tuesday and guess what! the balance was now zero. Customer service gave me a printout of the transaction that was made in CA, the same day I checked the balance. So I called the number on the back of the card and after I finally got a live person(don't select lost or stolen card you wont get anyone on the line) she sent me an email to file a claim. We shall see if I ever get the money back but I am not holding my breath.

  24. I hate to repeat what everyone has said here but I also got a gift card from my boss go to use it .86 was left asked customer service she said you used it here 9115RD at 3:30am. WHAT iam not shopping at any Walmart and 3:30 in the morning. You will have to call the number on the back. No answer no help just scammed!!!!

  25. Hi I also got scammed, $100 gift card purchased Dec 24th then Dec 26th the person i gave it too said it’s empty. I filled a dispute and dispute person said they can’t do anything about it because the card was registered with a different name. I said that’s why I submitted my photos of the receipt, the gift card, my information that Im the real person who purchased this. The dispute person said they can’t help me, i asked so who gets a refund here then???
    The dispute person can’t answer and kept replying the same words like an automated recording message. I told them disputes are the real scammers , they don’t even do anything to help, they are just there to argue with you.

  26. This also happened to me today but it was a gift card from a return at the store. Apparently used at store # 9115. The manager basically accused me of spending the money and then told me to go to the store who issued it. But instead I googled “Walmart store 9115 gift card” and found all these stories with no resolution. Shame on those people

  27. This is interesting. 2022, 4 years later, and this exact scam is still happening and Walmart refuses to do anything. My son just got a $150 gift card to help with college move-in expenses, and we found that it was emptied just a day after my mom purchased it. Used on walmart.com of course, and the same as everyone else, they refused to offer any type of assistance or refund.

    Honestly with that policy, Walmart themselves could be stealing that money and just putting it in the bank, and we couldn't do anything about it. I won't ever be buying a physical gift card from a big store again. I'll only buy directly from my bank from now on.

  28. This just happened to me. I returned an $84 unused item that my son didn't want. They put the money back on a gift card she got from behind the counter. I put the gift card on my online account to purchase groceries. I had checked the balance a few days before and it was all on there. Check the balance a few days later and it was at $0. Called and got the run around. It was used in Washington. I live in Utah. I believe the card number was stolen from my online account. I had two other credit cards on that account. I changed my password and added those other credit cards to text me with any purchases made. So far there has been no unauthorised use of my credit cards.
    Walmart sent me this email.

    Thank you for contacting Walmart Gift Card. We do apologize that this happened. Unfortunately, no funds could be recovered. We are unable to replace or refund the gift cards.

    Thank you for contacting Walmart, where we are always happy to help!

    I called walmart to see if there was any other steps i could take to recover my money. They said i need to contact my local police department. So frustrating. I'm not calling my police department for $84.

  29. I ordered from walmart.com direct and did two gift cards for 500 each. One worked, one didn't. They are giving me the run around. I purchased online, they said the card was used in Oregon and the original card was sent to florida. I sent all my info and photos to there fraud department. They blew me off. I didn't hear from them. I sent another email back to the fraud department and they just started the process over again. Then i get another email telling me to contact the gift card department. This is a nightmare. Out 500 dollars. Walmart needs to pay up!

  30. WARNING! NEVER BUY A GIFT CARD FROM WALMART! I purchased a Walmart gift card for my mom for Christmas because it was something she asked for. Before I sent it, I took a picture of the back of the card with the account number and the PIN number still covered. As it was traveling across the country from California to Pennsylvania, the total amount of the card was completely drained while in transit. We found this out after Christmas when she went to Walmart to use it and they said there was a zero balance on it. They printed a receipt that shows it was redeemed at #9115 at 03:29 am on a day that it was probably halfway across the country. I’m guessing store #9115 must be their online store. Walmart cannot explain this, is not helpful and I’m having to seek recourse through my credit card. After doing some google searches, I found others in the last 4 years that had the same problem with Walmart gift cards and with Walmart being very evasive and not helpful in explaining or fixing the problem. Sounds like an inside job that they are aware of, but not fessing up and not compensating for the losses.

    This is Walmart’s response to me:

    Thank you for reaching out about your gift card issues. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.

    We were not able to confirm mis-use of your Walmart Gift Card as it does not fit the pattern for a compromised card. Unfortunately, Walmart is not liable for lost or stolen funds. We apologize for any inconvenience.

    If your gift card was stolen, you may attempt to file a police report with your local police department and have them contact Walmart.

    If you need additional assistance related to your gift card please contact us back at 888-537-5503.

    Thank you for contacting Walmart, where we are always happy to help!

    Jamie S.
    - Walmart Gift Card Team

    Walmart should be liable to replace these funds. They are selling a defective product and refuse to stand behind it. On their gift card dIsplay they should have a big warning sign that says BUY AT YOUR OWN RISK AS WE WILL NOT STAND BEHIND OUR GIFT CARDS.
    Walmart sells these gift cards knowingly causing their customers to become victims of fraud. They have done nothing for years to prevent this from happening to their customers. Why isn’t there a class action lawsuit against them for this?

  31. I purchased a Walmart gift card for my mom for Christmas and the funds on the card were wiped out by store #9115 while the card was in her Christmas box traveling across the country from California to Pennsylvania. By the time she received her Christmas box, the funds were completely drained by store #9115 on November 26th at 3:30 in the morning. Walmart refuses to make right on this and stand behind what they sell. Why would anyone ever want to buy a gift card from Walmart? They knowingly sell these gift cards at the expense of their customers becoming victims in this faud scheme. After doing some searching on the internet regarding this problem, I discovered there is a class action lawsuit against Walmart for this exact problem. Here is the link to the lawsuit:

    https://www.classaction.org/news/walmart-has-fallen-short-in-ensuring-gift-cards-are-not-tampered-with-class-action-lawsuit-alleges#comments

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