By now, you’ve all heard about the massive credit card fraud that is (allegedly) tied to GiftCardMall purchases. Pretty much all of the credit cards I used at GiftCardMall got hacked…to the tune of $2936.36. Yes, someone had a fun day at the mall at the banks’ expense.
Luckily, all the charges were reversed while they’re being investigated and I got new cards in the mail. So has it stopped me from ordering from GiftCardMall again? Yes and no…
My gift card haul for the week
Last week, I placed a single order at GiftCardMall last week for $9,500 worth of Visa gift cards. I used my Fidelity Rewards Visa, which earns 2% cash back. It’s pretty much the only card I’ve used at GiftCardMall that wasn’t hacked.
The fees totaled $113.05 plus $10.95 shipping. Yes, I could have avoided the shipping fee by breaking my purchase up into six $1,500 orders. But time was in short supply last week, so I just paid the extra shipping fee.
I also paid $7.92 in money order liquidation fees. Total cost? $131.92. However, I’m getting $95 cash back from BeFrugal and earning $192.48 cash back from the Fidelity Rewards credit card. That brings my total profit to $155.56 for a few clicks of the mouse and a fairly pain-free visit to Walmart.
I’m not going to be using my replaced credit cards at GiftCardMall for a long time. GiftCardMall has yet to acknowledge the hack, let alone offer reassurances that it won’t happen again. I figured my Fidelity Rewards card would probably get hit anyway, so why not use it for one final, big order?
And if it doesn’t get hacked after this purchase, maybe the coast is clear and I’ll feel better about using my other credit cards for more purchases.
Is GiftCardMall safe?
GiftCardMall is one of the cheapest ways out there to buy Visa gift cards, but replacing all of my credit cards and disputing the fraudulent charges has been a huge hassle. I’m definitely going to take a break from Visa gift card churning after this (for a while, at least) and focus on alternatives.
As great as GiftCardMall was, I just don’t have the time to replace a dozen credit cards every week because they can’t figure out how to keep customer information secure…assuming that is in fact what happened.
Avoiding credit card fraud
I always check out as a guest when shopping at GiftCardMall, so it’s not like my credit card information was stored from my profile. People are speculating that thieves were stealing credit card numbers at checkout. I don’t profess to know how that works, but I do know we all need to keep closer track of our credit card activity.
Most of the fraudulent charges that totaled almost $3,000 were small and inconspicuous. I regularly use food delivery apps and car washes, so seeing those show up on my statement wouldn’t normally ring any alarm bells.
So take a close look at your transactions and check with your authorized users to make sure they are all legitimate. Your bank may pick up suspicious activity in small amounts, but miss a $600+ purchase on JetBlue (happened to me). You really have to be vigilant.
You spend $9500 in gift cards and you go to Walmart and buy what? You still have to pay the credit card bill
Buy money orders at Walmart with those gift cards.
Money orders.
Hey Ariana, I am having a hard time buying MOs in Walmart, the last time The CSR said “this is Money laundering, we don’t accept GCs to buy money orders”, so I didn’t argue and said “OK I didn’t know I can’t buy MOs with gift cards” and left. I did requested $3000 in money orders with a split tender payment of $500.
This week I did $15k and put them in my BB and Serve, so I can’t complaint, I just wish could go and do $8,000 in MOs everyday.
So ignorant. When they say that, you should definitely educate them. 1.) Money laundering is often done with cash and 2.) by definition, it’s done to make dirty money (i.e. funds acquired through illegal means) look “clean.” You’re not doing either of those things. Also, let them know the card has “debit” written on it and is legally supposed to be treated like a debit card/cash. That’s why it has a pin. Keep trynig though – you’ll come across a less hostile cashier at some point.
Awesome! I will keep you posted. Thanks for the advice.
Doesn’t it get tedious to activate each and every single one of those cards? Or you’ve figured out an easy way?
GCM cards arrive already activated.
You don’t have to activate the GCM cards.
Thank you for your MS post.
Sure thing Krys!
Interested in hearing about the ViGC alternatives you alluded to…
Ariana,
Do you have a Safeway (Von’s, etc) near you? If so, they have a special until June 8 where you can get $10 off VGC purchases over $100. I’ve been buying two $500’s so it only cost about $1.90 for $1,000 worth of VGC. It’s supposed to be only one person per household but you can realistically sign up for a bunch of different accounts and purchase thousands of cards at only $1.90 per $1,000.
Plus the best part is that if you use a credit card like Amex Gold you can get 4 X points so I’m getting 4,000 points as well per pop.
I do! A friend of mine actually texted me an email promo similar to this, which appeared to be targeted. I’ll definitely check it out though!
It’s not targeted at all. Anyone can make up an account on Safeway.com and then add it to the App. They have another one this week for $10 off two $50 cards and $15 off two $100 cards. I’ve been buying those and adding a $500 card to it for a net cost of only around $2.50 total for $800 in cards.
You can add multiple accounts and I’ve been buying like 6 or 7 or those combos per day. No problem at all. You just have to make sure you add in your phone # each time. But the interesting thing is you can just make up a phone number and add that phone # in while you’re checking out and it will work.
No visit to Walmart is pain free. My last visit someone tried to exchange a leaking BBQ propane tank, that part of the store had to be evacuated and the fire department was called. So no more Walmarts for me, even though I have a Serve that survived the last shutdown, it aint worth it.
Lol! That sounds about right.
I find that it’s a pain in the butt to buy more than $1000 worth of money order in wmt these days, they have to key in your drivers license information and usually it’s taking a while, plus I heard the stories of individuals getting banned by moneygram for buying too often and too much.
It’s definitely not a fun process.
So Far My Gift Card, I got from: Gift Card Mall, is working very well! I don’t have any problems using it.
It’s the credit cards you have to watch. Thieves have been swiping credit card numbers used at GCM checkout.
That’s true that Ariana, that’s true!
How do you get 2% back from befrugal? It says up to 2% but 1% on GC.
I get 1% back. The 2% is from the Fidelity Rewards Visa. Most cash back portals offer 2% on merchant gift cards purchased at GCM.
Did you buy almost $9k MO in one trip?
I do $8k in money orders and around $1-$2k in GoBank reloads.
Hi Ariana,
Thank you for your MS post. I learned a lot about MS from your blog. I start buying Visa Gift Card with my new Chase Freedom Unlimited this month. i am getting 3x UR. Do you use Ebates all the time for covering the purchase fee?
I just found out a post from frequentmiler about how to earn 4X AMEX MR point by using Ebates credit card. I am not sure that will also work for the purchases on giftcardmall.com.
Right now I use BeFrugal. Ebates screwed me over recently so I switched over. I thought about getting the Ebates card, but I held off initially, expecting a shutdown or exclusion of GCM. I might cover this at some point.
FWIW, I placed GCM orders on 5/24 and 6/3 using 2 different CCs and I haven’t had fraud on either (so far)
Good to hear! I’m going to wait a couple more weeks before I get back to it.
I ORDERED 3 $500 CARDS. Purchase went through ebates and gift card mall. I did not imediately get the cash back. I emailed support and they gave me the 1% however wrote back…
“If a Visa gift card is a Macerich, it will be listed in the title of the item when you go to purchase it. If the Macerich brand is not listed in the item’s name on the GiftCardMall.com page, the purchase of the card will be eligible for Cash Back. ”
How can I tell if a card is “Macerich” or not. All I really see is Metabank.
Thanks
Thanks for the heads up. I just placed my first order at GCM after many years and I used my CapitalOne virtual credit card #. I believe this would make fraud virtually impossible, as the number is only available for use one time.
Smart. I’m gonna start doing that with Citi. It was such a huge hassle getting all those cards replaced.