Warning for buying gift cards from third parties

[JoieNsk]

I always considered that if I buy the gift card from the third party but transfer the balance to my own legit Disney gift card right away – I am safe from fraud. I’ve being doing it for quite some time and never ever had problems. I was so sure about Disney gift cards )) I just trust Disney ) Well – that was a mistake which costed me at least 300 dollars.

Disney just blocked three of my gift cards. At least one of them still had “fresh” balance on it of 300 dollars. And Disney is not giving the money back to me. They told me – though the card they blocked was my own gift card I received from Disney Vacation account – as I transferred the balance from other card to my own – they are blocking MY card: appeared to be that someone – whoever owned the card I transferred the balance from before me – declared to their bank that they didn’t buy the gift card and their credit card was fraudulently charged to buy the gift card. Apparently that person didn’t notice the fraudulent charge for more than three months. As Disney actually gave me the numbers for two gift cards which supposedly were compromised and I checked all the gift cards I bought in the last three months (as the discounted web-site return policy covers you for only 90 days anyways). None of the cards I bought had those magic bad numbers.

From my understanding – I did at some point use my card temporarily for storing balance which was transferred from the now-compromised card. As I know exactly what card I transferred the balance of 300 from and that card was not the one Disney informed me was compromised. Nevertheless Disney preferred to block my cards - as apparently it is easier for them. They told me – well you didn’t buy the cards from us, and we need to protect our customer who did. I told them – but that person declared they DIDN’T actually buy those cards )) Apparently Disney is not going to help me there. They took MY money to cover their expenses ))

Sorry for the long post. I just thought this info might be a warning for other people. Be careful.

 

[1983DisneyFanatic]

Sorry that happened to you! I have always been wary of buying from third party sites, but I did it a couple times last year. The risk just inset worth it, so I don't do it anymore.

 

[JoieNsk]

Sorry that happened to you! I have always been wary of buying from third party sites, but I did it a couple times last year. The risk just inset worth it, so I don't do it anymore.

Well - I assumed that if the card was working and Disney let me transfer the balance - I was O'K.

The more that the balance I transferred which supposedly caused Disney to block my cards - it was transferred more than three months ago. And it was not on the card when they blocked it.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

In all honesty how is this Disney's fault here? I'm a realist I'm not a "Disney is the most amazing thing out there" nor am I a "Disney is a corporate greedy, etc" so I'm not coming from a "Disney can do no wrong" viewpoint here.

If I'm understanding this correctly you bought the original Disney gift card..but through a 3rd party site who sells gift cards at a discounted rate who were previously used by someone else or had the opportunity to have been previously used?

Technically the original gift card was not yours but the person who sold it to you. Sure you paid for the gift card but it was owned by another person. Even if you transferred the money to another gift card the funds from the original gift card belonged to the person who owned it first.

If I have everything correct it sounds like you were scammed from the person who put the gift card on the seller's website since they claimed it was fraud on their account to their bank and suspiciously waited past the 90 day guarantee from the 3rd party seller site to file a fraud with their bank. Basically they wanted $$ which ended up costing you $$$.

There is probably a flag in Disney's system where if someone claims fraud on their account they freeze/cancel/block the funds on the gift card as a precaution. If you were the true owner of the original gift card you would be able to show proof of purchase (and complete gift card number) where in that case you could request a replacement gift card from Disney in the event you actually legit purchased a Disney gift card but your account contained other fraudulent charges.

Please let me know though if I have misread or misinterpreted something.

 

[kydisneyfans]

Sorry that happened to you! I have always been wary of buying from third party sites, but I did it a couple times last year. The risk just inset worth it, so I don't do it anymore.

We "bought" a discounted card for another retailer for quite a bit of cash and the card was blank. While it took some effort to get a refund, we finally did. We also no longer use those sites to purchase. We'll stick to the various AMEX, Kroger, Meijer, and drug store offers to save a few bucks here and there. It's just not worth the risk and this problem is growing out of hand.

 

[JoieNsk]

In all honesty how is this Disney's fault here? I'm a realist I'm not a "Disney is the most amazing thing out there" nor am I a "Disney is a corporate greedy, etc" so I'm not coming from a "Disney can do no wrong" viewpoint here.

If I'm understanding this correctly you bought the original Disney gift card..but through a 3rd party site who sells gift cards at a discounted rate who were previously used by someone else or had the opportunity to have been previously used?

Please let me know though if I have misread or misinterpreted something.

I guess I didn't explain it quite well.

I did buy a third party card more then 3 months ago. And I transferred the balance to my own card I got from Disney Vacation Account. After I accumulated about 1000, I transferred the money to my Disney vacation account. And the balance on the card became 0.

More then 3 months later I bought another gift card from the third party. And I transferred 300 dollars to that my own card which had zero balance at the point of the last transfer. Couple days later I logged in into my Disney Gift Card account and noticed that two of three of my cards registered there show "invalid" as a a balance. So I called Disney and asked what happened with my cards. They investigated and told me that at some point I made a transfer to my card from the card bought from a third party. And though the money from that fraudulent card are not on the card anymore, they still are freezing my card because I made this transfer before. The money which were on the card at the moment they froze it had nothing to do with the fraudulent cards. That's it.

It sounds complicated. I also could not understand for a while, and kept telling the Disney Girl - you know the money you just took from me had nothing to do with the card numbers you gave me.

But she kept saying that as the money from the supposedly fraudulent card were transferred to my card at some point in the past - they froze my card. She also told me that the other of my legit Disney cards were frozen because I transferred the balance at some point between them. Which I probably did, as I combine balances together before transferring to Disney Vacation account to get about 1000 dollars on one card for transfer.

 

[JoieNsk]

Just adding - I mentioned the last my transfer was from third party card just for truth of the story, that card was O'K (for now at least The numbers Disney gave me were from more then three months ago.

I guess I never disputed any charges with my bank and I always pay my credit cards. So for the life of me I could not imagine that some person came to the bank more than three months after the charge was made on their credit card and said - I didn't make this charge ))

I always think - I pay my credit card and with this fact I confirm - I made the charges on my credit card ))

 

[JoieNsk]

And I agree: after this story - no third party cards for me either.

I just could not imagine how complicated the story could get. I was buying those Disney cards from Raise.com, CardKangaroo.com and Giftcardzen.com for almost two years no problem. Saved tons of money before this accident.

 

[kydisneyfans]

And I agree: after this story - no third party cards for me either.

I just could not imagine how complicated the story can get. I was buying those Disney cards from Raise.com, CardKangaroo.com and Giftcardzen.com for almost two years no problem. Saved tons of money before this accident.

I would guess that if you paid by credit card, a dispute on the charge for the original card could be placed.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

I guess I didn't explain it quite well.

I did buy a third party card more then 3 months ago. And I transferred the balance to my own card I got from Disney Vacation Account. After I accumulated about 1000, I transferred the money to my Disney vacation account. And the balance on the card became 0.

More then 3 months later I bought another gift card from the third party. And I transferred 300 dollars to that my own card which had zero balance at the point of the last transfer. Couple days later I logged in into my Disney Gift Card account and noticed that two of three of my cards registered there show "invalid" as a a balance. So I called Disney and asked what happened with my cards. They investigated and told me that at some point I made a transfer to my card from the card bought from a third party. And though the money from that fraudulent card are not on the card anymore, they still are freezing my card because I made this transfer before. The money which were on the card at the moment they froze it had nothing to do with the fraudulent cards. That's it.

It sounds complicated. I also could not understand for a while, and kept telling the Disney Girl - you know the money you just took from me had nothing to do with the card numbers you gave me.

But she kept saying that as the money from the supposedly fraudulent card were transferred to my card at some point in the past - they froze my card. She also told me that the other of my legit Disney cards were frozen because I transferred the balance at some point between them. Which I probably did, as I combine balances together before transferring to Disney Vacation account to get about 1000 dollars on one card for transfer.

Thank you for clairifying.

I guess my point is regardless of whether the original money from the original gift card is there or not there is a paper trail that traces back to a fraudulent charge. I'm assuming they blocked the cards because of that.

Even though your cards you transferred the money to didn't have anything to do with the original gift card purchased from the 3rd party, money from the original gift card was transferred to it even if that original money could be considered gone. It's basically a security measure from what it seems on Disney's side. They likely have a policy for doing that.

Think of it in this way-
~ The bank has an account holder who has claimed fraud on their account (the time frame to do so varies by bank and account type). Their account holder says they didn't purchase the gift card..but that money was taken out of their account to do just that.

~Well..to the bank the customer is right (at least at this time..I'm assuming too many fraudulent charge requests in a certain time frame may get the bank to be suspicious).

~So the customer needs their money back.

~Well at the same time the bank wants to ensure that the person who committed the fraudulent charge doesn't have access to the funds made available on the gift card so they communicate (presumably) with the company who administers the gift card and in this case that's Disney.

~Disney then freezes any cards that show transfers of funds from the original card.

***A scammer could choose to distribute $100 to multiple cards in hopes of reducing risk rather than putting all their eggs in a basket on one card. Because you are the person who had the card to them you are the scammer. And no I'm not actually saying you are I'm just saying how it likely looks on the bank's and Disney's side.**

I totally get your frustration. It's your money sitting on the cards that are being held hostage but if anything it's an issue with the 3rd party seller to me in that it seems like they have at least one scammer on their site (I'm sure there are others). You might see if they can give you a refund even if being outside of the 90 day policy due to this situation. You might be able to explain that because you transferred balances between several cards those cards are now frozen too.

 

[JoieNsk]

I would guess that if you paid by credit card, a dispute on the charge for the original card could be placed.

I mentioned - I pay my credit card every month. I can't imagine coming to the bank and saying - you see this charge I made more then 3 months ago - that was not me ))

Also the company who sold me the card did what they promised: the card worked at the moment they sold it to me and even for the 90 days after. Why would I punish the company (like Disney was punishing me )) I bought tons of cards from them which were O'K - so I am sure that was not them who scammed me.

I understand that buying the cards from third party you take a risk. And I was taking it consciously.

I just thought I was smart and took care of not being scammed ))

So I try to warn others - how ugly it can get.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

I mentioned - I pay my credit card every month. I can't imagine coming to the bank and saying - you see this charge I made more then 3 months ago - that was not me ))

So I try to warn others - how ugly it can get.

Take a look at your bank though and the terms regarding fraud charges.

1) They can make exceptions so it may not always be followed 100%

2) It will vary by bank and sometimes account type

For example my bank has the following rule:


Now notice it doesn't say within 60 days. It says within 60 days of receiving the first statement with the unauthorized activity. When you receive your statement will depend on the billing cycle and when the purchase was made. I have an e-bill and mobile banking but others may have a paper bill and no mobile banking so it could take longer to get the bill to see the charge in the first place.

FWIW I think it's a good thing you are trying to warn other people.

 

[JoieNsk]

FWIW I think it's a good thing you are trying to warn other people.

Thank you for all the info. I generally agree with you.

The thing is - even if I come to the bank and tell them - I want to dispute this charge - the charge I would be disputing would not be for the person who supposedly scammed me. It would be for the company who sold me the card. The company didn't do anything bad here.

So I would be like Disney in this situation: trying to punish somebody who was not guilty after all ))

I would just take this situation as a valuable lesson for me. I got lucky too - I could have had much more money on this frozen card and have lost even more.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Thank you for all the info. I generally agree with you.

The thing is - even if I come to the bank and tell them - I want to dispute this charge - the charge I would be disputing would not be for the person who supposedly scammed me. It would be for the company who sold me the card. The company didn't do anything bad here.

So I would be like Disney in this situation: trying to punish somebody who was not guilty after all ))

I would just take this situation as a valuable lesson for me. I got lucky too - I could have had much more money on this frozen card and have lost even more.

Yeah I personally wouldn't try to dispute the charge with your bank since the issue is actually with funds from a person who is not you. Man I could just see trying to explain that to your bank and have them scratching their heads. That's more or less why I said the issue seems to be more with the 3rd party seller. You can't actually go after the person who put the gift card up on the site though that sure would be nice instead of others getting caught in the cross hairs.

 

[starry_solo]

Tell the gift card site that you bought the card from what happened.

I think the moral of this story (thr secondary one) is don't comingle funds.

 

[fsjking]

Unfortunately, you received what sounds like stolen goods. It's the same as if you bought a stolen tv and the cops found you with it. They aren't going to give your money back, they are just going to take the tv and grill you on how you got it. In those cases, you are just out of luck. The banks and Disney don't know if you were in on it, and there is no way they could figure it out anyway. So the standard procedure is do whatever they can do to get their money back. In this case it's freeze every account the money went through regardless if the actual money is still on it. I'm surprised they didn't freeze your vacation account as well, but that might be a different bank or system. But this is definitely a case of buyer beware. I never would purchase a used gift card myself, and aren't really fond of buying anything used. Even when it sounds like a good deal. Like they say, if a deal is too good to be true.....

 

[cel_disney]

That stinks..

Can't help but wonder if the person who claimed their card was fraudulent was the scammer though..seems like they might have manipulated the 3rd party vender to pay them for the card, pass the 90 day mark, and then claim it was fraud ...so they pocket the cash too...

 

[JoieNsk]

That stinks..

Can't help but wonder if the person who claimed their card was fraudulent was the scammer though..seems like they might have manipulated the 3rd party vender to pay them for the card, pass the 90 day mark, and then claim it was fraud ...so they pocket the cash too...

That what Disney actually kept telling me. I don't know it's because they had experience with that already. Or she just needed to tell me something, so I would not be upset with Disney but with somebody else instead.

 

[fsjking]

I think the most likely scenario is someone used a scanner or some other way to get someone's credit card number. Bought gc's with it. Sold them online. The original person whose card got scammed didn't catch it right away for whatever reason. By the time they filed a complaint with their card company, then the card company informed Disney and they got the info into their system to do something about it, it could have been multiple months.

 

[MomToOne]

That stinks..

Can't help but wonder if the person who claimed their card was fraudulent was the scammer though..seems like they might have manipulated the 3rd party vender to pay them for the card, pass the 90 day mark, and then claim it was fraud ...so they pocket the cash too...

Or it was a legitimate stealing of credit card info, and it just took some time to work it's way through all the different companies and systems involved before Disney put a hold on things. I doubt that happens immediately.