Local 12: How to protect yourself from gift card scams
UC professor says scammers alter gift cards, place them back on racks in stores
Shoppers who plan to purchase gift cards need to be vigilant to avoid becoming the victim of a scam, Local 12 reported.
Bekah Michael
Bekah Michael, assistant professor-educator in the University of Cincinnati's School of Information Technology and the executive staff director for the Ohio Cyber Range Institute, told Local 12 that scammers alter gift cards and place them back on the rack at stores. When a shopper purchases the gift card, the scammer gets the money.
“So it’s difficult to protect yourself,” Michael said. “The one thing about gift cards is they are anonymous. They are not linked to another human. They are not linked to your ID. It’s not like a credit card where you would have some verification, and you would be able to say, ‘Hey I didn’t make that charge.’ It’s truly anonymous as to who is using that gift card, and who is loading it up.”
Among the ways shoppers can reduce the risk of becoming a victim of the scam is to inspect gift cards for tampering or purchasing them online, Michael said.
Featured image at top: Gift cards. Photo/Adam Winger via Unsplash
Impact Lives Here
The University of Cincinnati is leading public urban universities into a new era of innovation and impact. Our faculty, staff and students are saving lives, changing outcomes and bending the future in our city's direction. Next Lives Here.
Related Stories
UC doctoral student shares his journey with Spectrum News
July 27, 2026
UC doctoral student Amota Ataneka spoke with Spectrum News about his educational journey. Ataneka, a native of the Pacific island nation of Kiribati, is one of 35 emerging scholars across the United States to win the National Academy of Education/Spencer Dissertation Fellowship.
How scammers can persuade you with AI
July 27, 2026
Spectrum News recently dove into how cloning voices with artificial intelligence is making it easier to scam people over the phone. The news outlet spoke with Kimberly Hyun, assistant professor of marketing at UC’s Lindner College of Business, to examine why AI is making it so much easier to trick people.
The subtle changes in hearing you should never ignore
July 24, 2026
It’s easy to dismiss changes in hearing as minor. But as The Washington Post recently reported, these symptoms could also signal a medical emergency that many people don’t recognize — known as sudden sensorineural hearing loss, a rapid decline in hearing that occurs suddenly or over a few days.