Retailers are losing millions every year, and they don’t even know it.
It starts with a simple button: “Check Gift Card Balance.”
Seems harmless, right? A convenient way for customers to see how much money they have left. But for fraudsters, it’s an open vault. No login required. No security checks. Just a free pass to test thousands of stolen gift card numbers until they strike gold.
How Attackers Steal from You Without You Noticing
Meet Alex. He’s not a hacker. He doesn’t break into databases. He just runs a bot.
Every day, his script feeds thousands of random gift card numbers into a retailer’s balance checker. Most return “Invalid.” But every so often? Jackpot. A valid card. With money.
By the end of the week, he’s sitting on $25,000 in stolen gift cards – ready to resell, cash out, or drain before the real owner even notices.
And the best part? Nobody is stopping him.
Why This Problem Is Bigger Than You Think
Most retailers assume fraud happens at checkout. Wrong. It starts much earlier.
Here’s why this attack is so dangerous:
- It’s invisible. No alarms. No chargebacks. Just thousands of tiny, automated requests slipping past your security.
- It erodes trust. Customers don’t care how their gift card was drained. They just know it happened on your platform.
- It scales effortlessly. A single bot can check thousands of gift card numbers per second, across multiple retailers.
- It’s ridiculously low-risk for attackers. No stolen credit cards. No accounts to hack. Just brute-force guessing until they find free money.
By the time most companies notice something’s wrong, hundreds of customers have already lost their balances. And their first call? Your support team.
What Most Companies Do (And Why It Fails)
Most retailers only take action after they’ve been hit. And even then, they make the same mistakes:
- Blocking suspicious IPs: Fraudsters just rotate to new ones.
- Adding more customer support staff: But by then, the money’s already gone.
- Assuming it won’t happen again: It will. And next time, it’ll be worse.
If you’re only reacting after fraud happens, you’re already losing.
The Fix: How to Shut This Down Before It Costs You
If your gift card lookup feature isn’t protected, you’re handing out free money to attackers. Here’s how to stop it:
✅ Rate Limiting: Prevent multiple rapid requests from the same IP or device.
✅ CAPTCHA for Balance Lookups: Kills most basic bot attacks instantly.
✅ Behavioral Analysis: Detects patterns that signal bot activity (like sequential lookups).
✅ Require Account Login: Adds friction, making it significantly harder to automate.
✅ Monitor Your Traffic: If 90% of your lookup requests are bots, you have a problem.
The Bottom Line
This isn’t just a security flaw – it’s a business killer. Because the real cost isn’t just stolen money.
It’s the customer trust you’ll never win back.
By the time most retailers realize this is a problem, it’s too late. The fraudsters have already drained thousands of dollars. And their customers? They’ve already moved on to a competitor.
Is your gift card system secure? If you’re not sure, you might already be losing money.
That’s all for today.
See you next Saturday.