Gift cards are meant for gifts and personal shopping. Scammers like them because codes can be used within minutes and are hard to trace. Knowing the warning signs is the best protection.
10 warning signs of a gift card scam
- Someone asks you to pay a bill or fine with gift cards. No government agency, utility, bank or court accepts gift cards as payment.
- “Tech support” says your computer is infected and asks for gift cards to fix it.
- A boss or friend messages asking for urgent gift cards, often from a new number or email.
- You won a prize but must pay a “fee” in gift cards to claim it.
- An online romance partner asks for gift cards for travel, medical bills or emergencies.
- A buyer overpays and asks you to send the difference back as gift cards.
- Pressure and secrecy: you are told to act now and not tell anyone.
- They ask you to read the code or send a photo of the back of the card.
- Deals that are too good to be true, such as 50% off popular gift cards from social media sellers.
- Payment to a “safe account” that must be made with gift cards.
Golden rule: anyone who asks you to pay with gift cards and share the code is almost certainly a scammer.
What to do if you shared a code with a scammer
- Contact the gift card brand’s support immediately with the code and receipt. If the balance has not been spent, they may be able to freeze it.
- Keep all messages, receipts and screenshots.
- Report the scam to your local police or national fraud reporting service.
How Reloadly protects buyers and sellers
- Codes are delivered only to the email registered on your account.
- Every code sold to us is verified with the issuer before payout.
- We do not buy cards obtained through scams, theft or hacked accounts. See our Anti-Fraud Policy.
If something feels wrong about a request involving gift cards, stop and contact support@reloadly.shop before you share any code.