Quote:
Originally Posted by GtrsRGr8
Something that I forgot to mention--the station that I was at required that the cards be purchased with cash. They required that as a fraud-prevention measure (I can't quite figure out how someone could commit fraud paying for a gift card with a credit card or check, but I don't have a criminal mind).
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If a credit card has been stolen and gets used, once the chargebacks are made by the credit card company, the business that took the money is left holding the bag financially. The gift cards can't be revoked once they're activated, so the money would be completely lost. The profit margin is likely quite low on them as well. It'd be quite easy to steal a credit card, buy a bunch of gift cards, and basically launder the money into gift cards that way. Same with checks, although it's a bit harder to do, but still not all that hard.
I had my credit card number swiped once (not the card, just the number) and the crooks were running around with a physical card with a different name on it. The stripe didn't scan of course, but the name matched their (likely fake) IDs. I caught it right away thanks to online banking, but even so they were already out of town (one in another state than my own) and several merchants left with hundred dollar losses. They were never caught either. It's only gotten easier for people to steal credit cards since that happened to me, and easier to make fake ones with the data. Just think of all the massive security breaches in the last year alone (like Target's) where credit card data was stolen.
So that's why they restrict it, it keeps them from losing any money on the gift cards, as long as they check the cash to make sure it's not counterfeit. (Which is a heck of a lot easier to do than catching stolen credit cards!)