"Gift Card" Scam,,,??

Well VISA CAN track every transaction that was done on that card.. IF it's a legit card.  If 'they' can't help, report/charge Visa with fruad and wirefraud( internet..).Also I'm thinking it's a FEDERAL crime, not just State.

Too late now, but for all future 'cards', take to bank or business, have them 'scan' it and report what the balance is.

  Best advice is to use them dang promotional gift cards AS SOON as you get one. I am almost positive this was a scam as the woman at card services told me the 3 digit code on the back does NOT match the 16 digit number on the front,,!!!!

 ALSO,,the bank that allegedly issued the card now will nOT answer my calls for assistance,,!! I'll bet they answer the State Attorney General's calls.

They also all have different fees.  Some charge a monthly fee and transaction fees.  You need to buy something immediately with the card to use the entire balance on the card.  Then after a couple days return the item and get the cash.  Most of them you can't use in an ATM.  But in your case there probably wasn't anything on it from the get go!

I got one for Xmas for Amazon.  I went on Amazon and it took my information and put the card balance into my account.  What was really sweet was that I found out I had over a hundred already in my account! 

Well,Guys,,,a bit of an update,,,,I got on the phone this mornin and after several hours and many,,many  calls,,I finally reach a pretty little lass that gave me the best "tip" that I needed to start unraveling this clusterF***. She gave me a way to get past this Bank in South Dakota that initially purchased these gift cards from Visa, prolly by the hundreds of thousands. But you had to have the info to get past their road blocks to gain the info of where the particular card wound up at. I then called up that company's web site,,entered  the 16 digit card number, and lo and behold there is a company I vaguely remember,in Calif.,,,, I call up their web site and there are several sites where they have been reported to the BBB for bogus gift cards and a few entries of one of the better known Home Security Companys,,,,DING, ding, ding,,,them little memory bells start going off in my head,,,then of a sudden I remember when we had a falling out with our THEN home security company,,,,they hooked me back up with a "new" permanent monthly rate,,,,,,PLUS,,,plus ,,,a Free $100 VISA gift card,,,!! AND that ain't all,,,I am now able to access their files for the transactions on "MY Card" that DO NOT show any actual charges or transactions, but do show a "ZERO BALANCE" for the first month and every month there after til Jan 30 2020.  CHIT FIRE Almighhty,,!!!

 I immediately call ADT and am lucky to reach a sympathetic agent that has obviously been thru this CHIT before and she pulls up my file and there it is,,,,but,,,but,,,she does tell me that I have to call this company in Calif who ADT authorized to send out the promotional Gift cards as ADT has no control over that vendor. We figured out that the reason the gift card had a "zero Balance" was due to the 3 digit security code not corresponding to the 16 digit card number,,,henceforth,,there was never any money loaded into the card from the company in Calif,,!!!!! That may or may not been intentenal on their part but none the less they should have notified the end user,,,ME,, but like ole Hubert says,,,their MO is that people do not ever try to cash em in asap and they rely on that to make their money,,,

 The ADT agent is suppossed to call them first thing and submit a "claim" to get a new card issued to ole  Joe in the next 2-3 days.

 They don't call me TJ for nuttin ,,,(thas TENNACIOUS JOE),,,

Moral of this story,,if you ever get one of them Gift Cards,,,for goodness sake,,,use it up post haste or lose it for sure.

 Many THANKS for all the advise and support,,,I Love Ya'll,,,

 Yeah,,Ted,,,,  TJ for short,,,,,But you know there ain't no tellin how many hundreds of thousands of times chit like this happens and most times companies profit from people waitin or like me just flat forgettin,,but I think they all in this together,,,Ya see,,the bank in SD just would not help me in any way tellin me over and over that they could not do anything and hiding behind the fact that I could NOT remember where or who  I had got the card from,!!  They had access to the info I needed all the time,, yet , I got no help for the consumer.

 I still plan to gather all the info with all the names of people I talked to and present it all to the State Attorney General who in NM has a "Task Force" for scam efforts against seniors. The Lady at ADT had already run up against this exact same thing and was more then happy to assist me,

 This must be a HUGE business as you see everywhere companies offerin "Free Gift Cards" which is OK as long as the populous redeem them as soon as they get em but first Write everything down somewhere cause you prolly gonna need to refer back to it later,,,,fact IS,,I was gonna place an order at Amazon and guess what,,,they offer a "Free $50 Gift Card" just for getting an Amazon Credit Card and reduces your order amount by that amount which in effect is a good deal cause you get the savings up front,,,then get the Amazon CC and don't use it then cancel at the end of the month,,,,,,