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Franconia [Virginia] Police District – Officers from our Franconia Police District have arrested two men involved in a complex fraud ring involving altered gift cards. On December 20, officers assigned to the Springfield Town Center were alerted by Target’s Asset Protection for two men who were altering gift cards in their store and had done the same thing earlier in the day at a Target store in Manassas. Officers saw the two men stocking the shelves with gift cards and detained them. They were found to be in possession of altered Target gift cards. The cards are suspected of being...

Police are warning about an uptick in this scam during the holiday season as last-minute shoppers look for gifts for family and friends. Fraudsters know that the recipients of gift cards are unlikely to try to spend them until Christmas Day. By that time, the gangs will have spent the money loaded to them, leading to confused recipients getting gift cards with a $0 balance. But this crime does not only affect shoppers at this time of year. Suzanne bought the $200 Target gift card - which she did not realize had been tampered with - from her local store...

Immigrants who illegally cross the border into Arizona are being handed $5,000 in good-as-cash gift cards, along with cell phones and costly plane tickets, all of which are being paid for by the American taxpayer, according to Arizona Sheriff Mark Lamb.Mr. Lamb, sheriff of Pinal County, Arizona, told The Epoch Times that he had been informed of the lucrative hand-out through his close sources working at the United States border.“I was absolutely in shock when these agents came forward,” said Mr. Lamb. “I had known we handed out free cell phones and plane tickets, but to give out $5,000 Visa...

New Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass finished up her first week in office by helping out less-fortunate families with a holiday giveaway. Bass helped hand out $300 gift cards and other presents on Friday to 5,000 families at the All Peoples Community Center near downtown LA. "It will bring a smile to my daughter's face," said Noemi Munoz of South Los Angeles. "Bring some groceries to the table." The families who received gifts were chosen by lottery after being selected from among those in Los Angeles with the greatest need for assistance.

As more people follow the advice of global health leaders and practice social distancing in an effort to slow the spread of COVID-19, small businesses are going to suffer. “This is probably one of the most critical times particularly to support our small business community,” said Michael Lisle, economic development coordinator for the Town of Summerville. “Small businesses tend to be the first to lose out when something like this happens. People either start shopping online or they go to the big box stores because they’re buying in bulk.” Lisle said there are still ways that consumers can shop small...

As much as 3% of gift card dollars are never redeemed, according to an estimate from the Mercator Advisory Group. In 2019, consumers spent about $98.6 loading up gift cards, which means almost $3 billion was left on the table, according to C. Sue Brown, director of the group's prepaid advisory service... National Use Your Gift Card Day, founded by public relations professional Tracy Tilson, will debut on January 18. It's designed to serve as a reminder to those owners of gift cards to spend or donate them in order to reduce wasted gift card spending... Those consumers that don't...

The Grinch apparently isn't the only one looking to steal Christmas. Police in Florida are warning holiday shoppers this week that scammers have been placing fake barcodes on gift cards at stores. “Scammers are printing out their own barcodes and placing them over the actual gift card barcode at local retailers,” the Boca Raton Police Department wrote on Facebook on Monday. “When the card is activated, the money is added to the scammer’s card instead of the card being purchased.”

Anyone looking to buy Visa, American express, or Mastercard gift cards using a credit card will now have to show a government-issued photo ID. Also, purchases made at the self-service checkouts will no longer be allowed. “The ordinance was really born out of frustration,” said Shakopee Police Chief Jeff Tate. “This is five or 10 seconds to take your identification out and make sure it matches the card. I don’t think that’s asking too much..." Chief Tate believes other cities will adopt similar ordinances. “We’re the first, and hopefully not the last. We’ve had some inquiries from some outside agencies...

VIDEO The secret is to buy the Einstein Bros gift cards for a STEEP discount which you can find at GiftCardGranny.Com. I found a $25 gift card for just $12.50 or 50% off. Then join the Schmear Society to take advantage of their Monday Baker's Dozen sale when you can get 13 bagels for just $7. Using the gift card, it only cost me $3.50 out of pocket. Call ahead to your local Einstein Bros store because a few do not accept gift cards. Most of those that don't are located on college campuses, in hospitals, etc..

(CNSNews.com ) -- Wildfire management employees at the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) used government charge cards to by $799,000 worth of gift cards from vendors such as REI, American Express, FredMeyer and Visa, according to a report released Sept. 30 by the Interior Department’s Office of the Inspector General. When investigators requested supporting documentation such as purchase orders, receipts, and authorizing signatures, BLM staff claimed that they were “missing,” according to the report. The inspector general describes widespread misuse of government-issued charge cards at the agency, making the “purchase card program susceptible to fraud, waste, and abuse.” In...

Imagine going to the dentist for a free regular checkup, and getting a free $25 gift card in return. It’s happening right here in Pennsylvania, and taxpayers are paying for all of it. Every year, Pennsylvania spends $20 billion to provide medical care to low-income and disabled residents. But one of the biggest problems the state has is getting people to use those medical services for preventative care. Now a new program designed to address that problem has some people outraged. "I am upset." Michelle Tonkin is seeing red thanks to a Walmart gift card, which she recently got in...

Target is in hot water again after it emerged that a reported 40,000 gift cards sold over the holidays were not properly activated - leaving them with no value. The latest debacle comes just a week after the retail giant suffered a massive data breach which saw hackers access information to an estimated 40 million customer credit and debit cards. Now the store is under fire for scanning the wrong code on gift cards when handing them over to shoppers, meaning that the value was not activated, KMSP in Minnesota reported. It means that when the recipients of the cards...

Our FReepathon. I did not have any money to give more to my favorite site. However, I did have a few gift cards, with small balances just sitting around. I checked each and everyone of them to see how much was left. I had 4 in total (one was for .50 cents, lol). The other 3 totaled $30.77. I was not sure if a cc charge was applied for donations, so I contacted onyx whom referred me to Jim Robinson. Those last 3 donations from NY posted, were from me and my gift cards, sitting there collecting dust. If any...

Last summer, New Jersey ammended the state’s Uniform Unclaimed Property Act, allowing the state to seize (steal) unused money on gift cards. The law was signed by Gov. Chris Christie (R-N.J.). In November, a judge temporarily struck down the law. How I missed this before, I just don’t know, as is a prime example of actions that would be considered criminal if done by a private party. Gift cards may certainly be convenient for many, but I think they are a pain in the you-know-what. They can cause trouble for both merchants and customers who willingly enter into financial agreements....

Jurors in the theft trial of Sheila Dixon convicted the Baltimore mayor Tuesday on a single charge of taking gift cards intended for the city's poor. Although Dixon was acquitted of a felony theft charge, her conviction could force her from office. The jury found Dixon not guilty of the most serious crime, felony theft. The jury decided that Dixon did not knowingly steal about $530 in Target and Best Buy gift cards purchased in December 2005 by developer Patrick Turner, who testified they were intended for "the children of Baltimore." Dixon was City Council president at the time. The...

As I sit down on the 4th of July to write this week’s column, I am deeply humbled by what the founding fathers of this country have created for us. Yet every day we are giving away our freedoms by electing people who willingly usurp our rights for what they say is “the common good.” The latest instance is the taking of unused gift cards by state legislatures. Some of you may be aware that states have previously established the right to confiscate unclaimed bank accounts. There was a rationalization that if the account was unclaimed, somehow it should become...

Some states faced with sinking tax collections and rising debt are going after unused gift cards that bolster their revenue. South Carolina is considering legislation that would give the state the right to collect unclaimed gift-card credit. A similar measure in Texas to allow the collection of unused credit even from cards that have no expiration date passed that state's House this spring and stalled in the Senate. Texas already collects unused gift cards with expiration dates. Since the recession began, states have been aggressively tapping so-called abandoned property -- anything from gift cards to dormant bank accounts and safety-deposit...

SAN FRANCISCO (Private Equity Week) - With jobs and credit harder to come by, cash-strapped consumers increasingly are looking to bring in a little extra money selling the gift cards they receive as presents. That's contributing to a pickup in activity gift card resale sites, which are drawing higher traffic and greater interest from outside investors. Plastic Jungle, a Clovis, Calif.-based site for selling, buying and exchanging gift cards, last week announced the largest recent deal in the sector. It raised $4.8 million in a Series A round of venture funding from Shasta Ventures The 12-person startup plans to use...

ANNAPOLIS, Md. -- Annapolis lawmakers are introducing a bill that would allow for the collection of money from unspent gift cards to put into the state treasury. Nationally, gift cards are a $59 billion industry. Experts estimate that 6 percent of gift cards go unspent in Maryland. The bill would allow the state to claim 70 percent of that unused money and use the cash to fund education. "To me, this is a no-brainer. If you haven't used your gift card for four years, you are not going to use it, and why can't we share? The bill states we...

Could be some great buys for Black Friday.....but then again, given the trend of gifting Gift Cards, I'd personally be leary of putting up some green on a Best Buy Card, given their pessimism...