Gift Card Scam Alert: The Biggest Gift Card Scams This Holiday Season Are NOT the Ones You Hear About in the News

ScamBusters.org warns that it's the little-known gift card scams that are actually the biggest threats this holiday season.

(PRWeb) December 12, 2006 -- ScamBusters.org (www.scambusters.org) has issued a holiday scam alert warning consumers about little-known gift card scams. Although almost everyone has seen warnings about gift card scammers who are draining the value from gift cards that were displayed publicly in retail stores, this type of gift card scam is currently quite rare.

"On the other hand, there are three little-known gift card scams that pose a much bigger risk to consumers this holiday season," says Dr. Audri G. Lanford, Co-Director of ScamBusters.org, a public service website that has been helping people protect themselves from Internet scams since 1994. "These three common gift card scams mostly involve online action sites."

More specifically, experts agree that these gift card scams pose a bigger danger this Christmas season:

- Online auction websites where scammers offer used, fraudulent and counterfeit gift cards for sale.

- Websites (both online auction and other ecommerce and classified sites) where scammers overstate the value of authentic gift cards so that buyers get cards worth less than they expect.

- Online auction websites where scammers use stolen credit cards to buy real gift cards they sell for cash.

"What this means is that auction gift card scams now pose a much bigger threat than gift cards displayed on public racks in stores," says Dr. Lanford.

Fortunately, it is quite easy for consumers to protect themselves from all of these gift card scams. Click here for eight simple tips to avoid gift card (http://www.scambusters.org/giftcard.html) scams.

About ScamBusters.org

ScamBusters.org is a public service that has been helping people protect themselves from Internet fraud since 1994. Founded by Co- Directors Audri and Jim Lanford, ScamBusters.org provides a free weekly email newsletter that shows you how to protect yourself from cunning scammers -- online and offline. ScamBusters offers a lively, entertaining and opinionated approach to avoiding the most popular scams, viruses, spyware, phishing scams, identity theft ploys, credit card fraud schemes, and urban legends making the rounds.

CONTACT INFORMATION:

Audri G. Lanford, Ph.D.

Internet ScamBusters

828-262-5885

http://www.scambusters.org

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