Scammers love i. Tunes gift cards because they are able to turn the gift cards into cash quickly. This is how the scam works . The Scammer either hires a developer to create an app, or partners with an app developer who has already created an app that offers in-app purchases.
That’s a lot of cash. The reason why scammers ask for i. Tunes Gift Cards is simple: The codes are hard to trace — and once they have it they can resell to get money. They use a variety of ways to coerce money out of victims: They might say there’s a warrant out for the victim’s arrest for IRS debt, or a love interest might need money abroad.
The number one priority of the scammer is to get the victim to quickly read the number on the back of the i. Tunes gift card. A scammer may initially contact you someone by e-mail, text, or even by calling them on their cell phone.
Yet another inquiry we ran across in our research was “Why are Apple iTunes gift cards so valuable?”.
This is what my research found. because Apple i. Tunes gift cards are untraceable, they serve as the perfect commodity for money-laundering, which is why i. Tunes gift cards are so valuable. In this article we will expose why and how con artists scam people out of i. Tunes gift cards, and what you can do to prevent from being their next victim.
While we were reading we ran into the question “How to avoid buying iTunes gift cards?”.
The only way to avoid that for certain is to buy directly from the i, and tunes store. It’s not a surprise that scammers chose i. Tunes gift cards to center their scams around; they’re readily available in a variety of stores across the country. What is surprising is how they’ve figured out a way to launder that money through a seemingly legitimate source.
Another thing we asked ourselves was, what is a gift card scam?
Scammers place a call or email to an unsuspecting victim with urgent news or a convincing story. They then ask, or in most cases pressure, the person to send them a gift card, like an i. Tunes or Google Play card. This scam is usually performed under some sort of veil and will sound sincere.
How do App Store scam credit cards work?
Once the victim has bought the cards, the scammer instructs them to scratch off the back panel and read the card serial number to them. Unless the victim decides to redeem these codes quickly on the App Store or Play Store, the scammer can now uses these cards to their advantage.
How much money can you lose on iTunes scams?
The amount required by the scammers is usually substantial, often going into the high hundreds of dollars. In 2019, $102.9 million was lost on i. Tunes scams alone. Once the victim has bought the cards, the scammer instructs them to scratch off the back panel and read the card serial number to them.