State Senator Lisa Boscola of Northampton and Lehigh Counties announced this week her plans to introduce two bills that seek to prevent the rise of “card draining” scams. The bipartisan package is timely as holiday shoppers statewide are targeted.
Gift card “draining” refers to the act of recording activation numbers from cards on store racks and waiting for shoppers to purchase them and load them with funds. Scammers immediately steal the balance online before the customer or recipient can use it.
More than two dozen other states have already introduced new laws to battle this scam. According to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, these schemes are often linked to human trafficking or fentanyl distribution networks.
Boscola’s package includes the Gift Card Tampering and Data Theft Act, which creates a targeted offense for pre-activation tampering, and the Gift Card Scam Prevention Warnings and Training Act, which requires retailers selling third party gift cards to post standardized fraud warnings and provide basic employee training.
Boscola says she hopes to see quick action on the legislative package so that stronger protections will be in place before next year’s holiday season. She emphasized that shoppers “deserve to know that the gift cards they buy are safe” and that retailers should have clear guidelines on preventing these scams before they happen.
The bill package will be formally introduced in the Pennsylvania Senate in the coming days.
