FERNANDINA BEACH, Fla. — A Fernandina Beach grandmother said she bought a gift card at Walmart and ended up getting scammed by a criminal.
"It makes me angry that somebody is out there doing that," Jeanne Robinson said.
Robinson recently bought the gift card and mailed it to her grandson for his birthday. There was just one problem. The information on the card had been compromised. By the time it arrived in Illinois, the money had already been spent by someone else.
"I said that can't be right, you know there's $60 on that card ... that can't be right," Robinson said.
She was told by an employee that the card was used a thousand miles away at a store in Texas.
"The only way that I think that could've happened is if the card information was actually stolen before I ever even purchased the card," Robinson said.
Crime and safety expert Mark Baughman said the criminal act is a common fraud. All it takes is lifting up the tape concealing the code and writing that code down. Criminals steal the information and activate cards before they are purchased in a store. You can avoid the scam, he says, by buying gift cards kept behind the counter.
"It happens a lot more than you think because these cards are out and they are displayed to the public," Baughman said. "When you walk into a retail venue, there's easy access to them."
He also suggested making sure the card’s security tape hasn’t been altered.
"Sometimes when they put the tape back over it to cover up the barcode if the tape is on crooked or it looks like it's been peeled or modified you don’t want to buy that card," he said.
Robinson filed a complaint with Walmart but she said the company initially refused to give her a refund, saying stores aren’t responsible for lost or stolen gift cards.
First Coast News reached out to the company and it released the following statement:
"We care about our customers and take any fraud in connection with our financial services offerings seriously. We are connecting with the customer. As a matter of policy, we will not comment further on customer resolutions related to gift card fraud because every situation is unique. As fraudulent schemes grow increasingly more sophisticated, we will continue to evaluate our policies and procedures to further enhance the customer safeguards we have in place."
After First Coast News contacted the retail giant, Robinson said the company replaced her gift card.