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.

Gift card scams are an increasing problem. It is not an issue in dispute anymore but has become a severe cause of concern for marketers worldwide. A report by the Federal Trade Commission reveals:To get more news about 海外充值快手, you can visit nnxwheels.com official website.

"The data spotlight shows more than 40,000 consumers were impacted by gift card scams during the first three quarters of 2021, with the practice reaching heights to $51 million and 14,000 reports during Q1 alone. While. median losses for each of the incidents rose to $1,000 in 2021."

Another organization, Cyber-Forensics.net, a cyber forensics service for online scam victims, analyzed the "data spotlight" only to find that much larger thefts of $5,000 or more resulting from gift card scams now represent more than 8% of financial losses in 2021.

Out of this percentage, apple gift card scams became brazen. Such frauds especially become more active during the holidays as the season is ripe for scammers to go phishing.

Understanding the grave danger, the firm's chief analyst Timothy Benson investigated how scammers exploit apple gift card schemes?Fraudsters call people to make payments over the phone (also called vishing) for bail money, hospital bills, utility bills, debt collection, or any other.

The Apple gift card scams are committed using several methods. Fraudsters call individuals and request them to provide the numbers printed on the back of the Apple Gift Card, iTunes Gift Cards, or App Store code.

Regardless of the reason for the payment, the fraudsters follow a particular trick to implement this scam. The scammers call the potential targets, create a fake scenario to steal data, and instill panic and urgency to make a payment through Apple Gift Card. Once the victims have purchased the card, the scammers ask them to share a 12 digit code provided on the back of the gift card over the phone.
Apple Gift Cards are specifically designed to purchase goods and services. Users can make purchases from the Apple store, Apple store apps, iTunes, Apple Music, Apple books, Apple TV, and other Apple properties. Therefore if someone receives a request asking for payment using Apple Gift Cards outside the items described above, they should report the issue.

In addition to this, Apple gift cards cannot be used to make payments for things like hospital bills, electricity bills as these cards are non-refundable and cannot be exchanged for cash or any other item.Fund recovery expert Timothy Benson explains: to receive money via transfers; a scammer needs a legitimate financial account for victims to pay them.

Contrary to this, sending gift cards over the phone does not require undergoing any legal procedure. One doesn't need a secure financial account to redeem these gift cards.

All that a scammer needs is to ask the consumers to scratch the silver protected code and convince the victims to send the code printed on the card.