Draining gift card scam arrives in Britain: Victim loses £150 in her local Sainsbury’s – here’s how it works
Shoppers are being warned of a new gift card ‘draining’ scam imported from the US, which sees criminals siphon off money from vouchers before the recipient has a chance to spend it.
This is Money was alerted to the scam’s presence in the UK when reader Lorraine* (not her real name) contacted us to say her family had become victims.
Lorraine bought two Amazon gift cards worth a total of £150 in her local Sainsbury’s store in early December.
A couple of weeks later, she sent them away to her niece in another part of the country as a Christmas present – one from Lorraine herself, and one to give on behalf of her elderly mother.
Confused: When the person who received the gift card went to the Amazon website to redeem it, she was bemused to find the money had already been spent (stock image, posed by model)
But when her niece Laura* tried to spend the cash on the Amazon website in January, the money had already gone.
She had become suspicious when she tried to remove the plastic card from its paper backing, and found it had been glued on – obscuring the code needed to validate the voucher online.
She called Amazon to ask if the money could be credited to their online account via the voucher’s serial number, but Amazon said the money on the cards had already been spent in mid-December – before Laura even received them.
It is part of a ruse known as the gift card draining scam, which was rife across the US around Christmas 2023.
The trick begins when thieves steal the cards, which are often left hanging on the ends of supermarket shelves – sometimes swiping hundreds at one time.
They then take them away, scratch off the silver foil obscuring the validation code and copy down the numbers.
The card is glued back on to the paper packaging, so as not to arouse suspicion. Alternatively, thieves can purchase silver foil stickers online which make the card appear unused.
The cards are then snuck back into the shop where they were taken from.
Gift cards are worthless when they are sitting on the shelves, and are only topped up with cash once someone like Lorraine picks them up and takes them to the till.
Stuck: The gift cards had been glued to their packaging, so that shoppers could not check the codes and see that they were defaced
Drained: It turned out that the money pre-loaded on to the cards had already been spent by scammers
But once they are loaded with cash, the criminals exploit the fact that there is usually a gap of days weeks and even months before the voucher will be spent.
Armed with the validation codes, they aim to get there first – meaning the confused recipient will be left with nothing.
They will regularly check to see if money has been loaded, and the amount of cards stolen will mean that at least some are likely to bear fruit.
It is not exclusive to Amazon vouchers, or to Sainsbury’s supermarkets, and This is Money understands other large retailers are being targeted.
It works particularly well around Christmas, as the fraudsters can bank on the fact that the recipients won’t try and spend the money until at least 25 December. It can happen at any time of year, however.
There are also likely to be people who still have unspent vouchers from the festive season who may not realise they have been drained.
An Amazon spokesman said: ‘We take gift card related fraud very seriously.
‘We work closely with our third party distributors to improve how we protect customers and businesses.
‘If customers have concerns about a gift card, they should return it to the place of purchase.
‘We also encourage customers to report any suspected scams to us so we can keep customers safe.’
Before buying a gift card, customers should carefully check for any signs of tampering – and make sure to keep their receipt.
When Lorraine got in touch with This is Money about her gift cards, she said that Amazon had already told her it could not give her a refund.
Laura had not been able to get a refund at her local store, as she didn’t have the receipt.
However, she had posted the defaced cards back to Lorraine so that she could try and return them to the store where she bought them in December.
In the end, Lorraine did manage to get a refund from Sainsbury’s for the £150 value, part in cash and part in Sainsbury’s vouchers.
But she suspects that she is not the only one to have been caught by this.
‘I find it difficult to believe that I am the unluckiest person in the UK and managed to pick the only two cards that had been tampered with,’ she said.
A Sainsbury’s spokesman said: ‘We have told the customer how sorry we are for their experience and arranged a full refund.
‘We have a range of measures in place to prevent fraud and we are working closely with the Gift Card and Voucher Association to look at what else retailers can do to help.’
