10-04-2025
‘Kill the Grinch:' Bill to define, penalize gift card fraud clears Florida Senate
Scammers like gift cards. Many over-the-phone and texting scams involve asking the victim to pay fake fines, penalties or tax payments via gift card rather than cash or check as they are untraceable.
Card draining, where scammers steal cards, copy the information and put the cards back into a store for an unsuspecting person to buy and activate has become a growing concern. Several people have been arrested in Florida recently with sacks of stolen or altered cards.
Under a Senate bill passed unanimously Wednesday, Florida will be cracking down on gift card scams.
SB 1198 defines gift card fraud in Florida law and makes it a first-degree misdemeanor punishable by $1,000 in fines and up to a year in jail. That includes tampering with cards or their packaging or trying to acquire a gift card or gift card redemption information without the permission of its owner, the retailer or the company issuing it and using it to obtain "money, goods, or services or anything else of value."
If the aggregated value of the ill-gotten gains exceeds $750, the crime becomes a third-degree felony punishable by $5,000 in fines and up to five years in prison.
'A 'yes' vote on this bill will kill the Grinch,' Sen. Nick DiCeglie, R-St. Augustine, the bill's sponsor, said before the floor vote Wednesday.
The companion House bill, HB 1007, has passed through two committees.
Florida is a popular target for scammers. Last year, there were 474,614 reports of fraud, the FTC said, the third-highest in the country behind California and Texas, but we're No. 1 in reports per 100,000 people. In 2023, Florida residents lost more than $460,000, according to the FTC's latest annual Internet Crime Report.
Scammers come at you in lots of ways.
You get contacted by someone saying they're from the IRS or FPL or somewhere telling you that you owe money and need to pay immediately to avoid penalties or jail
You're contacted by a company you know, telling you they spotted fraud on one of your accounts and need your help to make sure your money is safe
An email or text, apparently from your boss, arrives after work hours asking for a favor
The person you've fallen in love with over a brief, intense period of online interaction needs some money right away
A great job opportunity needs a deposit first
You get asked to be a mystery shopper or to help with a bank investigation
Someone who sounds a lot like a loved one calls you in desperate need of bail or airfare, or even ransom
And all of them ask you to pay them in gift cards, sometimes with the promise of money for you that will never come.
However, some gift card scammers rip you off without ever knowing who you are.
In the last few months in Florida and around the U.S., gift card scammers have been stealing cards in stores, copying the numbers, and sneaking them back into stores among the other cards to be sold. When an unsuspecting person buys and activates the card, the scammer sees that in the online status and immediately drains the card's balance before the legitimate owner has a chance to use it.
'This is a complicated scheme where they're going in, taking as many as they can, taking them home, stripping them out of the packaging, taking down the information, repackaging it, putting it back in the store, somebody's unexpectedly buying them and giving them to a loved one, a family member, whatever, as a gift," said Rep. Dan Daley, D-Coral Springs. "So, very complicated, very complex."
Just before Christmas last year, Donghui Liao pleaded guilty to possession of 15 or more counterfeit or unauthorized access devices after Ocala police said he was seen on video switching real gift cards for fake ones at a local Target. At the time of his arrest, he had enough cards to defraud Target out of more than $1.8 million.
Two people from China were arrested on similar accusations in Stuart the same month. Investigators believe they were also linked to thefts at stores in Orlando, Sarasota, Fort Myers, Naples, Fort Lauderdale, and Miami.
In January, Naples police arrested two Latvian men on charges of stealing gift cards from two Walgreens and a Publix as a detective followed them. Along with what they had just taken, they also had a bag of 176 cards worth about $15,000.
Ohio County deputies busted a Fort Lauderdale man last year and found 748 gift cards worth about $374,000, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office in West Virginia.
In 2024, gift card scams and card draining accounted for $212 million lost from scams nationwide, according to the latest data released by the Federal Trade Commission.
"Know that no legitimate company or government agency will require payment via gift cards," the Florida Attorney General's Office said. "If someone claims otherwise, it is a scam."
Some ways to avoid getting scammed:
Never send gift cards in response to a solicitation
Avoid sharing card numbers or PINs
Never send a gift card to a solicitor claiming a loved one is in trouble
Do not deposit checks received from unknown individuals, especially if they request repayment via gift card
Purchase gift cards directly from the card's merchant, don't use little-known, third-party sites
When buying a gift card at a store, take it to the counter and inspect it to make sure the package has not been torn or resealed. With permission from an employee, open the package and make sure the cards have not already been scratched with the account number or PIN code visible. If there are even minor scratches or signs of tampering, report it to the store and do not buy it.
If passed by the Florida Legislature and signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis, the bill would go into effect Oct. 1, 2025.
This article originally appeared on Treasure Coast Newspapers: Gift card scams bill in Florida would crack down on fraud, theft
