Gift card draining is a growing fraud where scammers steal gift card details or tamper with physical cards to empty their value. Thieves use phishing, hacking, or record exposed codes in stores to access the cards. Once funds are loaded, they swiftly drain the balance, leaving the rightful owner with nothing. A federal task force is now investigating the role of Chinese crime rings in this expanding scam, as detailed by Craig Silverman and Peter Elkind in ProPublica:

Card draining occurs when criminals remove gift cards from store displays, take them to a separate location, and either record the card numbers and PINs or replace the cards’ barcodes. They then reseal the packaging, return to the store, and place the tampered cards back on the rack. When an unsuspecting customer selects and loads money onto one of these compromised cards, the criminal gains access to the card online and steals the balance. … In card draining schemes, “runners” assist with removing, tampering, and restocking the gift cards. A single runner, driving from store to store, can swipe or return thousands of tampered cards in a short period. These individuals often fly into a city, rent a car, and target every big-box store they can find along a corridor near an interstate.