Madison woman loses $11,500 to gift card scam


One woman is out thousands of dollars after losing her money in a pre-paid scam. Kim Grove says her stack of Apple Gift Cards amounts to $11,500.To get more news about 充值苹果礼品卡, you can visit nnxwheels.com official website.

“I kept them all,” said Grove. “When you look back at it and you look at the whole thing, it’s plainly obvious it was a stupid scam.”She says it started when she received an email about a recent online purchase stating she had ordered a TV and video gaming equipment through Amazon. Grove says she had not bought anything like this and clicked on the link in the email to file a claim.

Shortly after, Grove says she received a phone call from someone claiming to be Amazon telling her that her account was hacked and that the company would refund her $400.

According to Grove, the imposter had her log on to an electronic banking website and enter her account information to receive the money back.

“He goes, ‘Oh no, it looks like there was a mistake. We just refunded you $4,000, not $400,’” remembered Grove. “And I was like ‘Oh, that’s not cool. That means I owe you $3,600.”

After trying a few options online to send the money back, Grove was told she could reimburse the overpayment by purchasing Apple Gift Cards.Every time I did that, there was some sort of mistake like it didn’t go through or it was blocked by their software,” recalled Grove. “I kept going back to the store and getting more and more of these gift cards to fix the problem.”

Before long, Grove had racked up $11,500 worth of Apple gift cards until realizing it was all part of a scam.Grove is just one of many people across the country who has lost hundreds of dollars in the pre-paid card scam.

The Better Business Bureau says consumers lose an average of $700 in this scam, compared to the average loss of $169 for any other type of scam.

Tiffany Bernhardt Schultz, the Southwest Wisconsin Regional Director for the Better Business Bureau, says it’s significantly more money that the consumers are losing to these gift card scams.

“Scammers love the fact that you cannot trace any form of payment on a gift card,” added Bernhardt Schultz. “As soon as you provide those numbers, it’s gone.”Once a consumer scratches off those numbers and provides them to a scammer, a scammer immediately has your money.

“The bottom line is that they want to get your money and it’s an easy way to get your money because it can’t be traced,” explained Bernhardt Schultz.