Cards - Buying Gift Cards With Stolen Credit

: Some use gift cards to make in-app purchases within their own apps or donate to specific streamers, eventually receiving a clean payout from the platform. Impact and Statistics

: Scammers make a purchase with a stolen credit card and then return the item, requesting the refund be placed on a gift card. This converts the stolen credit line into a legitimate, untraceable store credit. buying gift cards with stolen credit cards

: Fraudsters use the cards to buy popular electronics (like iPads or iPhones) that can be easily resold for nearly 95% of their retail value. : Some use gift cards to make in-app

: Fraudsters use stolen credentials to buy digital gift cards. They often use bots or "bulk-buy" tactics to obtain as many cards as possible before the stolen credit card is flagged and blocked. : Fraudsters use the cards to buy popular

: Some criminals take physical cards from retail racks, remove the preprinted numbers, and emboss them with stolen credit card information. They then damage the magnetic stripe so a cashier must manually "key in" the transaction, effectively using the stolen credit card as if it were the gift card.

The scale of this fraud is significant, affecting millions of consumers and leading to massive merchant losses: Using Stolen Credit Cards to Buy Gift Cards - Riskified