Walmart saved $4 million from elder gift card scams that victims can get back — but the problem remains huge

Technology developed by Walmart helped the retail giant identify and freeze nearly $4 million in gift cards that had been bought by thousands of primarily elderly victims at the direction of con artists who duped them. The U.S. Department of Justice, after being notified by Walmart, recently seized that money through a federal court action in Arkansas. Now victims of the frauds can claim the money. But the money that Walmart saved for those victims is just a small fraction of the millions of dollars annually lost in so-called imposter scams that rely on gift card purchases. In the first nine months of 2021, consumers reported losing $148 million in frauds where gift cards were used to pay scammers, according to Federal Trade Commission data. About half of the victims who report ‘imposter scams’ end up making a payment using a gift card . . .