SCAM ALERT: How You Can Protect Yourself from Gift Card Scams

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. (KEYT) – The risk of getting scammed is higher than ever, with fraudsters constantly coming up with new tactics to trick, scare, or intimate you out of your money.

In this week's segment of On Your Side, we highlight gift card scams – victims will receive text message from someone they believe they know, stating that person needs them to purchase a gift card. Legitimate ticket vendors and financial institutions will never ask customers to purchase gift cards to receive a refund or resolve an account issue.

Authorities remind the public to never provide gift card numbers, and pins over the phone, this is how the scammers obtain the gift card information.

Your News Channel will have more on how to protect yourself tonight at 6:00pm.

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