Be Careful Buying Visa Gift Cards This Holiday Season.

Author Bob Bronson

October 19th, 2022 10:24 AM

Not so sweet Vanilla

We celebrated my daughter’s birthday the other night with a nice dinner, a couple of cupcakes and a few gifts for her. One of the gifts my wife bought for her was a $100 Visa Gift Card, the one they call Vanilla.

After opening the card my daughter went online to register the gift card, as soon as she did, that the balance on the card was literally one cent, a penny! What happened to the other $99 and 99 cents??

Stolen credit

We called customer service and was told that online purchase was just made for $99.99 by someone in Texas named Jason. This was news to us because she had just taken the card out of the envelope that it came in. The customer service person was not encouraging, saying we had to lodge a fraud complaint that could take up to six weeks to resolve!

So much for customer care!

You can imagine our frustration with the process of being told that they would have to investigate the incident with no guarantee that we will be seeing any money back even though it was clearly a case of her being hacked the second she registered her gift card.

We did our own investigating

My wife Googled Visa Gift Card fraud and was stunned by the sheer amount of times this happens to unexpecting customers or gift card recipients. Apparently this happens all the time and Visa is well of aware of it. Many people report losing upwards of $500 to $1000 the exact same way our daughter did. Online scammers sit and wait for someone to register the card because they have a list of numbers and the PIN ready to go, before you know it, your money is gone, and good luck trying to get it back.

Watch this before you buy!

We are going to have wait and see what happens with our fraud case, but you should watch this before buying a gift card.

Bob is a native New Englander, growing up (sorta) in Maine where his love for radio started at a young age. While in high school he hosted radio shows on a local radio station, and he has never looked back. Bob joined the US Navy and served onboard the Sixth Fleet Flagship as a radio and TV host. After serving for 3 years, it was off to Emerson College in Boston. Bob hosted shows in Boston on WMEX, WVBF and WSSH in the 80’s and 90’s before heading to radio stations in Raleigh, NC, Manchester, NH, and New York City. Bob has been married for almost 25 years to Carolyn, a Woburn gal and they have 3 daughters, Nicole, Taylor, and Bridget. Bob and Carolyn are proud first-time grandparents to baby Caroline, who they plan to spoil every chance they get! “I started my career in New England and could not be happier to come back to Boston where I can root for all the Boston sports teams and eat lots of lobster rolls and clam chowder (okay not lots)… It is an honor to host the WROR morning show with LBF and wake up the World’s Greatest City!” Bob writes about recipes and restaurants, pop culture and trending topics.

Most Popular Christmas Present Hiding Spot Is The First Place Your Kids Look

If you’re a parent, it may seem like you could hide your kids’ presents inside the walls and you’d still come home to see they’d sawed through the drywall to sneak a peek.

According to a new survey, the most popular place to hide Christmas gifts is in a bedroom closet. However, the first place kids look is in a bedroom closet; and the place where gifts are most commonly found is, you guessed it, a bedroom closet.

Might be time to get creative with the hiding this Christmas. Below is a list of the most popular Christmas gift hiding spots.