POWELL, Ohio — The Better Business Bureau is warning people about a gift card scam that a woman in Powell fell victim to.
In late 2020, Nicole Randle went to a Kroger in Dublin to buy a gift card for her son to give to her husband for Christmas.
She loaded $100 onto the card, which was sealed in a jacket when she bought it.
Randle said when she and her husband opened the packaging to use the gift card in early March 2021, they found half of the gift card intact that was glued to the packaging.
She said they found half of another card on top of the one attached to the packaging that just had the bottom part with the barcode.
When they tried using the code online, they discovered there was no money on the card.
Basically, when the card was scanned for purchase, it scanned the half of the card with the barcode that was on top and showing through the window to buy it.
The other half of this card with the claim code number was taken by a scammer waiting for the card to be loaded to spend the money themselves once the card was activated at checkout.
Jessica Kapcar, the communications manager for the Better Business Bureau in central Ohio said these scams are happening more and more.
“Between 2017 and 2020 reports to the BBB scam tracker have nearly tripled,” she said.
According to the organization, reported consumer losses for scams like these amount to $245 million since 2017.
Randle said she filed a report with Dublin police and reached out to Amazon, but by then, there was not much either entity could do.
“Unfortunately, once scammers have those numbers, the money’s gone. It is a really unfortunate thing. It’s a big problem right now,” Kapcar said.
The BBB advises people to make sure the gift card they are looking to purchase hasn’t been tampered with, use their credit card for those kinds of purchases and save the small receipt that comes with buying a gift card just in case a discrepancy happens.
Randle just hopes no one else learns the hard lesson she did.
“It’s just upsetting, you know. People use their money and this has to happen. If I can make it known that it doesn’t happen to anybody else, then it’s worth it,” she said.