Stay Alert – Fake Gift Card Balance-Checking Sites

Can't remember the balance on one of your gift cards? Make sure you don't accidentally go to a fake gift card balance-checking site!

As part of their customer service, many legitimate companies provide sites for customers to check their gift card balances. Unfortunately, scammers have become increasingly skilled at creating deceptive balance-checking sites with fake URLs. If you want to check your card balance and do a Google search, among the top results may be a link that seems perfectly legit — even endorsed by Google Ads — but the whole thing is just a facade. Should you end up on one of these fake sites and enter your gift card number and PIN, you'll unknowingly give scammers direct access to the funds on your card.

Keep this in mind: Just because a site to check your gift card balance appears at the top of a search, it does not mean it's legitimate. Search results can be filled with fake gift card balance-checking sites, and scammers are constantly finding new ways to get their pages to show up at the top of results.

The safest way to check the balance of a gift card is to refer to the back of the card for a web address or phone number. If this information is not provided, proceed with caution. Avoid entering your gift card details into any search result labeled as "Sponsored" or "Ad." In addition, be cautious of any site title that appears in wacky fonts or next to odd emojis. Scammers often use this tactic to make their fake sites both visually pop and appear towards the top.