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Giftcards.com not delivering

Oct 15, 2020
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Hello. For reasons I can't get into, I've been expecting for an influx of $250 Visa virtual gift cards (Visa® Virtual Account Gift Cards | GiftCards.com) to be sent to me via email (300+), though nothing has arrived in my inbox yet. It doesn't make sense, considering I'm pretty confident the orders have been placed, and their processing takes up to 24 hours at most. Is it a problem with them? Thanks for any help you can give.
 
They've probably flagged your account for risk of money laundering. You're going to need a much more sophisticated setup than this if you want to launder money.
What do you suggest? If none of those cards go through, I'll be out $100k+. I'm not exactly innocent, though I'm not getting those cards for money laundering purposes. Those cards are "payments" from hundreds of people.
 
Contact here
They will only can help you.

GiftCards.com
Blackhawk Network
6220 Stoneridge Mall Road
Pleasanton, CA 94588
Phone #: (877) 944-3822
Fax #: (877) 781-5159


Why do not you wait for first card to arrive ?
Than step by step order others.
 
Contact here
They will only can help you.

GiftCards.com
Blackhawk Network
6220 Stoneridge Mall Road
Pleasanton, CA 94588
Phone #: (877) 944-3822
Fax #: (877) 781-5159


Why do not you wait for first card to arrive ?
Than step by step order others.
Because I'm not really the one ordering them. Let's just say I've had 100+ people order me one $250 Visa gift card. I didn't really have control of when or how they did did it.
 
What do you suggest? If none of those cards go through, I'll be out $100k+.
I don't think you have many options. The way you're getting paid is high-risk. Complete loss of funds is one of those risks.

You can try filing complaints with Giftcard.com or its suppliers (Visa and MetaBank) or sue them, but chances are most of the outstanding gift cards are already or will be cancelled (and probably refunded) and the transactions bundled up into a Suspicious Activity Report sent to FinCEN.

I'm not exactly innocent, though I'm not getting those cards for money laundering purposes. Those cards are "payments" from hundreds of people.
The legal definitions of money laundering are very broad. This might not be money laundering in the sense that you stole money or sold drugs, but if people are paying you through hundreds of $250 gift cards instead of normal payment methods, it's probably some form of money laundering or at least suspicious and risky enough that a channel like this gets closed down.
 
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I don't think you have many options. The way you're getting paid is high-risk. Complete loss of funds is one of those risks.

You can try filing complaints with Giftcard.com or its suppliers (Visa and MetaBank) or sue them, but chances are most of the outstanding gift cards are already or will be cancelled (and probably refunded) and the transactions bundled up into a Suspicious Activity Report sent to FinCEN.


The legal definitions of money laundering are very broad. This might not be money laundering in the sense that you stole money or sold drugs, but if people are paying you through hundreds of $250 gift cards instead of normal payment methods, it's probably some form of money laundering or at least suspicious and risky enough that a channel like this gets closed down.
Yeah. It doesn't matter too much if I'm out $100k+ in this context, since I can receive payment again. Next time, I'm gonna be using Vanilla Visa (https://www.vanillagift.com/silver-gift-email) and having it come through in the form of $500 gift cards. How many gift cards should I have ordered to one email account? I'll probably be receiving more payment next time and I'm not planning on letting it go to waste.
 
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Yeah. It doesn't matter too much if I'm out $100k+ in this context, since I can receive payment again. Next time, I'm gonna be using Vanilla Visa (https://www.vanillagift.com/silver-gift-email) and having it come through in the form of $500 gift cards. How many gift cards should I have ordered to one email account? I'll probably be receiving more payment next time and I'm not planning on letting it go to waste.
They key is to not deviate from normal expected customer behaviour. Anything you do that's not normal gets added to an ever-increasing risk score. Once you hit a certain point, someone will start looking into you and your transactions.

More than a couple of gift cards per person per month would probably get suspicious. Depending on how sophisticated they are, you may need clean email, IP, name/address, phone number, and browser/device for every account you create.

Another risk factor is whether the senders (payers) can become a reliable tracking point. If Customer A sends 4 x $500 to you one month and 4 x $500 to another account the next, the third or foruth month they might be blocked.

In addition to have a steady supply of accounts (identities), you may need to spread your risk across multiple websites.
 
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They key is to not deviate from normal expected customer behaviour. Anything you do that's not normal gets added to an ever-increasing risk score. Once you hit a certain point, someone will start looking into you and your transactions.

More than a couple of gift cards per person per month would probably get suspicious. Depending on how sophisticated they are, you may need clean email, IP, name/address, phone number, and browser/device for every account you create.

Another risk factor is whether the senders (payers) can become a reliable tracking point. If Customer A sends 4 x $500 to you one month and 4 x $500 to another account the next, the third or foruth month they might be blocked.

In addition to have a steady supply of accounts (identities), you may need to spread your risk across multiple websites.
Do you think that 10 cards per email address is too much? I'm having exactly 300 of these cards sent to me soon.
 
Do you think that 10 cards per email address is too much? I'm having exactly 300 of these cards sent to me soon.
Ask yourself: would a normal, average user of that website get 10 gift cards for the exact same value at roughly the exact same time? Or would that be something highly indicative of some financial crime?

If I was running the risk and fraud department at Giftcard or VanillaGift, I would probably consider that type of behaviour as risky and take some form of action.
 
Ask yourself: would a normal, average user of that website get 10 gift cards for the exact same value at roughly the exact same time? Or would that be something highly indicative of some financial crime?

If I was running the risk and fraud department at Giftcard or VanillaGift, I would probably consider that type of behaviour as risky and take some form of action.
Yeah. I think I might just have my payers order the cards to their own personal email addresses, and just forward the email they receive to mine.
 

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