Scammers keep finding ways to drain gift cards

Canadians spend billions of dollars on gift cards each year and for the most part they're used successfully without any issues, but occasionally some gift cards turn up empty.

“Well first it looks bad, but I told them I wasn’t trying to play a Christmas trick on them,,” said Jason Cheng of Mississauga, who bought two $100 gift cards for his sisters as Christmas presents that turned out to have zero balances. 

Cheng bought the gift cards at Loblaws and thought they would make a nice gift to help them pay for groceries, but when they went to use them both had no funds. 

"When she (his sister) went online to check the card it did confirm on Dec. 15th that it was activated with $100, but somehow 2 days later the card was drained," said Cheng.

Samantha De Melo and her fiancé of Brampton purchased a home last year and her future brother in law gave them a $400 gift card for Home Depot as a house warming gift.