Key figures
- $233 million was reported lost through gift cards in 2025 — the highest since 2021
- 35,321 reports were filed in 2025, down 45% from the 2021 peak
- $1.35 billion reported lost since 2019, summing the FTC’s per-year figures
- 33% of US adults have ever given or received a gift card with no balance
- 34% have been targeted by a gift card payment scam, or know someone who was
Three different crimes get counted as one
$233 million is the reported total for gift card payment scams. Card draining is a separate crime, counted separately. Fake balance-check sites are a third route, and carry no public figure. The three never appear in one total.
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Payment scam
The code is handed over after purchase
- A caller poses as a government agency, a business or a relative and demands payment
- The victim buys a genuine card at a real till
- They read the number and PIN down the phone
- The balance is gone within minutes
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Card draining
The code is stolen before purchase
- Cards on a shop rack are opened and the numbers recorded, then resealed
- A shopper buys the tampered card and loads it
- Activation tells the criminal the card now has money on it
- It is emptied before the recipient ever uses it
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Fake balance-check site
The code is typed in after purchase
- A lookalike balance-checking page is set up to be found in search
- The cardholder enters the number and PIN to see what is left
- The site harvests both
- The card is drained by the people who built the page
- $233 million is not the total size of US gift card fraud. It is the reported total for one of the three routes (2025)
- Fake balance-check sites ask for the card number and the PIN, which is everything needed to spend the balance
$233 million was reported lost through gift cards in 2025
US consumers report losing $233 million to gift card payment scams in 2025. Reports fall to 35,321, the fewest in seven years. Each report now carries $6,600, nearly twice the 2021 average.
- Reported losses rose from $212 million in 2024 to $233 million in 2025. The rise is the first in four years, and it returns losses to their 2021 peak
- Reports have nearly halved since 2021, from 64,638 to 35,321
- The average report carried $6,600 in 2025, nearly twice the 2021 average. Losses divided by reports — our arithmetic on the FTC’s totals
- Americans have reported losing $1.35 billion to gift card scams since 2019. The figure sums the FTC’s per-year totals, which start at $103 million in 2019
- The 2025 figures come from the FTC’s fraud dashboards, read on 30 June 2026. The printed data books end at 2024, and dashboard totals rise as late reports arrive
- These are reported losses. The FTC states its data is built from unverified consumer reports, not a representative survey, so the real total is higher
- For unused balances, market size and what cards resell for: Gift Card Statistics (2026)
Most of the money comes from a few large losses
75% of gift card scam dollars come from losses of $5,000 or more. The median loss rose from $700 in 2018 to $1,000 in 2021. Large losses are rare, and they carry most of the money.
- 75% of the money lost came from reports of $5,000 or more — $111 million of $148 million, in the first nine months of 2021
- The median reported loss rose from $700 in 2018 to $1,000 in 2021
- Reports of $5,000 or more grew from about 8% to 14% (2018 to 2021)
Younger adults are targeted more often than older adults
39% of adults under 50 have been targeted, against 28% over 50. A gift card scam is not a crime that only reaches older people. 21% of all US adults have been targeted personally, and about a quarter of those went on to buy the cards.
- 34% say they or someone they know has been targeted (2022, n=2,179)
- About a quarter of those targeted went on to buy the cards (2022)
- Those who did loaded about $200 on average before handing over the numbers (2022)
- 21% were targeted personally; the rest knew someone who was (2022)
- 39% of 18–49s report being targeted, against 28% of over-50s (2022)
- Targeted is not the same as defrauded. The 34% is people a scammer approached, not people who lost money
Gift cards are no longer the payment method scammers get most
Gift cards rank 7th of 10 payment methods in 2025 fraud reports. In 2021 they ranked 4th. Bank transfers now take the most money, at $2.29 billion. Gift cards are the card scammers ask for, not the one that pays most.
- Gift cards rank 7th of 10 payment methods by report count in 2025 (2025)
- In 2024 they ranked 6th, and in 2021 they ranked 4th
- Credit cards, payment apps, debit cards, bank transfers, cryptocurrency and wire transfers all draw more reports
- Bank transfers take $2.29 billion, nearly ten times what gift cards take (2025)
- Cryptocurrency takes $1.78 billion, against $233 million on gift cards (2025)
- The same shift shows inside impersonation scams — the classic gift card demand: bank transfers took $385m (40%) and cryptocurrency $208m (21%) of 2023 losses reported directly to the FTC where a method was given (April 2024)
- 26.6% of people who reported a fraud loss paid with a gift card (January 2018 to September 2021). The base is people who identified a payment method
- That 26.6% is not a current figure, and it used a narrower method than the annual data books — reports made directly to the FTC, excluding online-shopping fraud. The two series should not be spliced together
33% of US adults have given or received a gift card with no balance
33% of US adults have given or received an empty gift card. Criminals take the numbers off the rack, reseal the packet, and wait for someone to load it. Activation is the signal that the card is now worth draining.
- 33% of US adults have given or received an empty gift card (November 2025, n=1,849)
- The figure was 30% in 2024, 27% in 2023 and 21% in 2021
- The question asks whether this has ever happened, so the figure is lifetime incidence, not a yearly rate. The 2021 wave was telephone-only; later waves are telephone and online
- 28% of those who sought a remedy got their money back in 2025 (November 2025). In 2024 it was 18%
- The refund came from the retailer, as cash or store credit. A further 21% were told nothing could be done (November 2025)
- An empty card does not prove criminal draining in every case — activation failures and retailer errors also produce it
Who the scammer claims to be
Gift card scams are eight pretexts sharing a payment method. Five pretexts carry a counted loss figure. The other three are documented mechanisms with no public number.
| They claim to be | The pretext | What has been reported |
|---|---|---|
| A government agency | Your identity was used in a crime; your accounts will be frozen unless you act now. | 7,844 people reported losing $39.6m (Jan–Sep 2021) |
| A business or retailer | There is an unauthorized charge on your account, or a problem with your order. | 12,239 people reported losing $35.5m (Jan–Sep 2021) |
| Tech support | A pop-up or call warns of a virus or an expiring security service, and asks for remote access. | Top reported payment method for tech support scams (2023). No gift-card loss total published |
| A romantic interest | Weeks of grooming, then a travel, medical or emergency cost that only you can cover. | 24% of romance-scam loss reports naming a method named gift cards — the most of any method, and among the smallest by dollars: median $700, against $10,079 for cryptocurrency (2022) |
| A friend or family member | I am in trouble and I need help now — and please do not tell anyone. The voice may be cloned. | Nearly 45% of those reporting a loss to friend or family impersonation paid with gift cards (Jan 2018–Sep 2020) |
| Your boss | I am in a meeting. Buy client reward cards, send me the numbers, and keep it between us. | 1,164 complaints and $1,021,919 reported to IC3 (Jan 2017–Aug 2018) |
| An employer or a mystery-shopping job | Deposit this check, buy gift cards as your first assignment, keep the difference as pay. | Mechanism documented; no gift-card figure published (April 2024) |
| Nobody at all | No persuasion. Cards are altered on the rack before anyone buys them. | Mechanism documented ; 22 states introduced 30+ bills (Feb 2026) |
- Every FTC figure above is scoped gift card or reload card and excludes reports classified as online shopping. None is a gift-card-only count
- Gift cards are the most frequently reported payment method for several of these. They are not where the largest dollar losses go — among older adults reporting losses over $10,000 to imposters in 2024, cryptocurrency, bank transfer and cash lead (August 2025)
- The friend-and-family figure carries no published sample size, so the window is given instead
Which cards scammers ask for
Apple was the most reported gift card brand in 2023. Target leads on money: a $2,500 median loss, the highest of any brand. Reports and dollars rank differently, so the two lists do not compare. No brand-level figures have been published since.
- In 2023 Apple cards were “far and away the most reported gift card brand”, followed by Target, eBay, Walmart and Amazon (May 2024)
- That ranking is report count only. The FTC published no dollar figures, no medians and no sample size with it
- Google Play left the top five between the two rankings, and Amazon entered it
| Brand | Median reported loss | Reports of $5,000+ loss |
|---|---|---|
| Target | $2,500 | 30% |
| Walmart | $1,380 | 12% |
| Apple | $800 | 13% |
| eBay | $600 | 3% |
| Google Play | $500 | 6% |
- The table above is the only brand-level dollar data the FTC has published. It covers 1 January to 30 September 2021, a nine-month window, not a full year
- Scammers took roughly $35 million on Target cards alone in that window (2021). That is more than twice any other brand
- 30% of people who paid with a Target card lost $5,000 or more (2021)
- The two rankings measure different things. 2021 ranks brands by dollars lost; 2023 ranks them by how often a brand was named. Apple and Target swapping places is not a trend — it is two different questions
- No brand breakdown has appeared in any FTC Data Spotlight, consumer alert, press release or data book since May 2024, and the Consumer Sentinel dashboards carry no brand field at all
22 states introduced gift card fraud bills in 2025
Only one state changed what shops must do in 2025. Twenty-two states introduced bills, and most created criminal penalties, which punish after the fact. Nebraska’s was the one that touched the rack.
- Lawmakers in 22 states introduced gift card fraud bills in 2025 (February 2026). In 2024 it was eight states
- The 2025 bills numbered at least 30, against 12 the year before (February 2026)
- At least 25 of the 2025 bills created criminal offenses or penalties. At least eight imposed requirements on merchants, and only Nebraska’s was enacted that year (February 2026)
- Maryland enacted what is widely reported as the first state packaging mandate: in-store gift cards must sit in sealed, tamper-evident packaging that conceals the codes. Effective 1 June 2025 for open-loop cards and 1 October 2025 for closed-loop (Chapter 463 of 2024, signed May 2024)
- California works from the consumer side instead. Balances under $15 become redeemable for cash from 1 April 2026 (SB 22, chaptered October 2025)
- The California rule now covers digital gift cards as well as physical ones
- Homeland Security Investigations runs Project Red Hook against the networks behind draining. ICE names Chinese organized crime groups and links the proceeds to fentanyl production
- Project Red Hook has produced 232 arrests in its first two years (December 2025)
- Investigators seized $8 million across the operation’s first two years (December 2025)
Why scammers ask for gift cards
Scammers ask for gift cards because the payment cannot be reversed. The rules that let you dispute a debit card charge name gift cards as excluded. Recovery depends on the issuer’s goodwill, not on any right you hold.
- Scammers favor gift cards because they are “easy for people to find and buy” (December 2021)
- The transaction is “largely irreversible” and scammers “can remain anonymous” (December 2021)
- Gift cards have “fewer protections for buyers compared to some other payment options” (December 2021)
- Federal law excludes gift cards from the fraud protections that cover other prepaid products (12 CFR 1005.2(b)(3)(ii)(D))
- The exclusion is express, not an oversight. Gift certificates, store gift cards and cards marketed as gift cards are carved out of the definition of a “prepaid account”, so the limited-liability and error-resolution rules never attach
- The CFPB said so directly: its gift card rule “does not provide consumers who use gift cards with the other substantive protections” — naming limited liability and error resolution (81 FR 83976, November 2016)
- What the law does give you is narrower: funds cannot expire for at least five years, dormancy fees are limited, and terms must be disclosed before purchase (12 CFR 1005.20)
- Closed-loop prepaid value up to and including $2,000 also sits outside FinCEN’s prepaid-program rules, so it draws less anti-money-laundering scrutiny than bank transfers (31 CFR 1010.100(ff)(4)(iii))
- Pay a scammer by credit card and you have billing-error rights. Pay by gift card and you have none. This is the difference that makes the card worth asking for
How a gift card payment scam works
A gift card payment scam is a conversion funnel in six stages. The first three build the story: a call, a borrowed identity, urgency. The last three turn it into money. Scammers name the brand, stay on the line, and take the numbers.
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Reach the victim
phone call · text · email · social message · pop-up
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Establish an identity
a government agency · a retailer · your employer · a relative · a partner
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Create pressure
arrest · frozen accounts · a compromised device · a relative in trouble · secrecy
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Direct the purchase
names the brand to buy, and the store to buy it from
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Defeat intervention
sends the victim to several stores · stays on the phone throughout · coaches what to tell the cashier
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Capture the value
the numbers and PIN off the back, read out or photographed
- These scams most often start with a phone call from someone impersonating a well-known business or a government agency (January to September 2021)
- The FTC records scammers keeping victims on the phone while they shop, sending them to several store locations, and telling them what to say if a cashier asks (December 2021)
- The stated reason for staying on the line is to stop the victim calling anyone who might help (December 2021)
- Only the numbers on the back are needed. Once read out, the money is effectively unrecoverable
What scammers do with the codes
Runners spent one victim’s gift cards 13 minutes after purchase. Speed is the point: it beats the retailer’s ability to recover the money for the buyer. The codes buy electronics, and the electronics ship overseas.
- Court records describe runners redeeming cards “approximately 13 minutes after the victim purchased the cards” (September 2023)
- Elsewhere cards were redeemed “just hours, and sometimes minutes, after they were purchased by victims”
- The Justice Department states the purpose plainly: the rapid transactions “prevented Target from recouping the value on the cards for the original victim-purchasers” (March 2024)
- Card data is “spent on high-value products that are shipped overseas to be re-sold”
- HSI describes the same route for both card draining and victim-assisted payment scams — the money leaves by the same door whichever way the code was taken
- One prosecution describes buying “high-value electronics, principally Apple products” for shipment to China, Hong Kong or Southeast Asia (April 2025)
- Court documents put that network at well over $100 million in gift cards (April 2025)
- A separate case trafficked $7 million in fraudulently obtained gift cards (September 2023)
- Another redeemed $2,285,039 in victim-purchased gift cards between June 2019 and June 2021 (February 2026)
- Cells have operated from states with no sales tax, which widens the margin on every resold item
- This is why the first call matters more than the report. A balance can only be frozen while it still exists
How to spot a gift card scam
Gift cards are for gifts, never for payments. Nobody legitimate asks to be paid with a gift card. A caller who names a brand of card is running a scam.
Treat it as a scam
- Anyone who tells you to pay with a gift card. No business or government agency ever will
- A request for the numbers and PIN off the back, read out or photographed
- Being told which brand to buy and which store to go to
- Being sent to several stores so no one cashier sees the whole purchase
- Someone staying on the line while you drive to the shop and pay
- The words “certificates” or “electronic vouchers” in place of gift card
- A prize you must pay a fee to collect, or a check to deposit and partly send back
Do this instead
- Hang up, then call back on a number you looked up yourself — never the one that contacted you
- Offer to pay by credit card. A refusal settles the question
- Check a balance only at the number or web address printed on the card
- Never enter card details into a search result marked Sponsored or Ad
- Pay for gift cards with a credit card — it is the route that carries chargeback rights
- Photograph the card and the receipt at the till, before you leave
- Report it at reportfraud.ftc.gov and ic3.gov
Checking a card before you buy it
These defend against draining rather than persuasion — the card is interfered with before you ever pick it up.
- Run a finger over the back. A barcode on a sticker, laid over the real one, points at a card the scammer controls
- Match the barcode to the packaging. The number visible through the window should match the one printed on the pack
- Look for tears, wrinkles or a resealed edge, and a PIN cover that is missing, incomplete or no longer flat
- Take a card from the middle or the back of the rack, not the front
- If one card looks tampered with, buy somewhere else. Racks are interfered with in batches (December 2024)
- Watch the register as each card is scanned, and confirm the balance loaded before leaving
What to do if it has happened
Call the issuer on the back of the card before anything else. In one prosecution the money was gone in 13 minutes. Reporting matters, but it comes second — a balance can only be frozen while it still exists.
- Act immediately. An issuer told fast enough can sometimes freeze what is left
- Get the card and the receipt in front of you before you call (December 2023)
- Call the issuer on the number on the card — the brand on the front, not the shop that sold it
- Ask for your money back explicitly. Some companies refund, and it is worth asking
- Report it at reportfraud.ftc.gov and to the FBI at ic3.gov
- Tell local police and insist on a written report — it is what any later restitution turns on
- The AARP Fraud Watch Network Helpline is free on 877-908-3360, Monday to Friday
Sources
- Better Business Bureau, Scam Tracker — reports of phony gift card balance-checking websites
- Federal Trade Commission, Consumer Sentinel Network Data Book — 2019 through 2024 editions, payment-method tables
- Federal Trade Commission, Consumer Sentinel Network fraud dashboards — full-year 2025 payment-method data, as at 30 June 2026
- Federal Trade Commission, written testimony to the Joint Economic Committee — 25 March 2026
- Federal Trade Commission, Impersonation scams: not what they used to be — Data Spotlight, 1 April 2024
- Maryland General Assembly, Gift Card Scams Prevention Act of 2024 — Chapter 463 (SB 760), signed 9 May 2024
- Target Corporation, written testimony to the House Judiciary Committee — 17 December 2025, citing HSI Project Red Hook data
- Federal Trade Commission, Scammers prefer gift cards, but not just any card will do — Data Spotlight, December 2021, Emma Fletcher, including footnote 7 brand medians
- AARP Research, Gift Card Scams: A Goldmine for Criminals — n=2,179 US adults 18+, fielded January and February 2022
- AARP Research, Consumers Want Protection from Fraud During the Holiday Season — n=1,849 US adults, fielded 11–20 August 2025, published 18 November 2025
- National Conference of State Legislatures, Gift Card Fraud Surges as Scammers Get More Sophisticated — 25 February 2026
- Federal Trade Commission, Avoiding and Reporting Gift Card Scams — Consumer Advice, July 2023
- Federal Trade Commission, Check out gift cards before you buy them — consumer alert, December 2024
- Federal Trade Commission, No, that’s not your boss asking you to buy gift cards — consumer alert, January 2026
- Federal Trade Commission, Gift cards top scammers’ wish lists — Data Spotlight, 21 December 2020 (data January 2018 to September 2020)
- Federal Trade Commission, Romance scammers’ favorite lies exposed — Data Spotlight, February 2023 (data year 2022)
- Federal Bureau of Investigation, IC3 Public Service Announcement I-102418-PSA, Business Email Compromise: Gift Cards — 24 October 2018
- FBI El Paso, Tech Tuesday: Protecting Yourself From Fake Barcodes on Gift Cards
- US Immigration and Customs Enforcement / Homeland Security Investigations, Recognize and respond to gift card fraud at retail (Project Red Hook)
- AARP, Watch out for Gift Card Scams — updated 24 October 2025; and AARP Virginia, Gift Card Balance Scams, 17 February 2025
- Better Business Bureau, What to know before purchasing a gift card
- Federal Trade Commission, Scammers prefer gift cards, but not just any card will do — Data Spotlight, 8 December 2021, for the agency’s stated reasons scammers favor gift cards
- Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Regulation E — 12 CFR 1005.20 (gift card rules) and 12 CFR 1005.2(b)(3)(ii)(D) (exclusion of gift cards from “prepaid account”)
- Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Prepaid Accounts Under the Electronic Fund Transfer Act and the Truth in Lending Act — final rule preamble, 81 FR 83934 at 83976, 22 November 2016
- Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, prepaid access rule — 31 CFR 1010.100(ff)(4)(iii), closed-loop threshold
- US Department of Justice — gift card fraud prosecutions, District of New Hampshire (April 2025), Eastern District of Virginia (September 2023) and Northern District of New York (February 2026)
Felix Day is a US gift card comparison service. We publish this research because we maintain the underlying catalogue and pricing data anyway. If you believe a figure here is wrong, we would rather know.