A MAN claims hundreds of dollars disappeared from his Home Depot gift card.
Rex Miller from Montreal, Canada was baffled when a $500 Home Depot gift card that he purchased for a friend was wiped clean.
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Instead of buying the card directly through Home Depot, he purchased it at a Super C grocery store in Quebec, which was his first mistake.
Miller ended up keeping the gift card for himself after his friend insisted he didn't want to take it.
Miller purchased two items using the card, leaving it with a remaining balance of $210.58.
However, he tried to use the card a few weeks later and there was $0 left on the card for him to complete another transaction.
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This left Miller confused as he claimed the card's scratch-off sticker for the code didn't appear to be tampered with.
Miller even claimed he left the gift card in a drawer at home when he wasn't using it.
"I did not use this gift card, nor did I lend it to anyone," Miller told CBC.
Despite showing Home Depot receipts from when he purchased the gift card, and receipts from his two transactions, the home improvement store was unable to help get his money back.
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Home Depot claimed they were unable to access the information on the card because he didn't purchase it directly through a Home Depot store or on the company's website.
Miller even attempted to receive help from Super C, but they ultimately directed him back to Home Depot.
However, after weeks of trying to get his money back, Home Depot decided to issue him a gift card with the remaining balance of $210.58.
A Home Depot customer service agent sent him an email, stating the deed as a "one-time good faith gesture."
Miller is proposing that stores safely secure their gift cards between registers and recommends that customers buy their gift cards straight from the store rather than a third-party store like Super C.
Although Miller's gift card appeared not to be tampered with, scammers have ways of strategically replacing the barcode so that when money gets loaded onto the card, it gets sent directly to the scammer.
Other stores such as Target are experiencing gift card scams after nearly 50 stores were affected.
The Sacramento County Sheriff's Department even caught one man in the act, arresting him in the Target parking lot after he stole nearly thousands of Apple and Target gift cards.
He was allegedly a part of a larger gift card scam across the West Coast.
The Federal Trade Commission suggests to inspect your gift cards before purchasing.
Always ensure that the PIN on the back isn't showing and that the protective stickers are fully intact.
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If you believe you were a part of a gift card scam, you can report it to the FTC.
