HONOLULU (KHON2) — Hawaii residents with unused gift cards lying around may want to check if there is still money on them.
A Waikele man said his $480 Walmart gift card was drained without a single purchase on his end.
John Shaw purchased a Walmart gift card and loaded it in September 2023. He put it in a drawer and did not touch it until May 2024 when he received an error message after he checked the balance.
“I called them up and they told me that there’s nothing in the card,” Shaw said. “And I said, ‘Wow, man, I never even used it!’”
Shaw and his wife have a digital account and tracked the card’s spending history — he later sent screenshots of two receipts from someone on the East Coast to Walmart.
“Two purchases were made in Massachusetts,” Shaw said. “I emailed it to them and they responded, they said they’re not liable for stolen funds.”
The Better Business Bureau said refund policies differ from company to company, Walmart’s website shows different rules for varying types of gift cards. Experts said to treat gift cards like cash.
“Right now we’ve got a lot of big box stores and also small businesses who will say, ‘Well, the liability is not really on us for this. So sorry, but we’re not going to reimburse you,’” said BBB Great Western Pacific digital campaigns and media engagement manager Cameron Nakashima.
The gift card that Shaw bought was purchased in-store, it is not clear how the money was drained BBB experts said buying directly from a vendor’s website might be a safer bet.
“So if it’s a Walmart gift card, buy it from Walmart.com and make sure it’s not through some third-party vendor. And that way you make sure that nobody’s tampered with that code and nobody else has access to that code except you,” Nakashima said.
“I don’t buy gift cards anymore. Well, I still have more gift cards I’m going to finish out,” Shaw said with a laugh, “but after that, I’m just going to use my regular credit card.”
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The U.S. Department of Homeland Security Investigations works to identify, disrupt and dismantle gift card scamming networks. For more information, visit their website.