The card's history showed there were $50 worth of Google Music purchases, before she even received it! Woestendiek, a nurse of almost four decades, learned her gift card had no more money on it, even though she never used it. 'I got the card out of my wallet, and the lady said the card was declined,' explained Woestendiek, who learned of her zero balance while purchasing sneakers. Pamela Woestendiek, of Williamsville, thinks it happened to her on a Visa Vanilla gift card that she got for her birthday in November. Once alerted that it's activated, the thieves will drain it clean. Stokes said the hackers than have technology to track when the card is activated. Those stickers are sold online, and it makes the gift card look as good as new. If any PIN number or code on the card needs to be scratched off, a hacker will scratch it off, copy the number, then put another silver scratch off sticker over the number. They will then record all the card's information.

Kathy Stokes, AARP's Director of Fraud Prevention Programs, said there have been situations where people will walk to the rack of gift cards in a store and quietly grab a stack. (WKBW) - If the holidays treated you well then you might find yourself lucky enough to still have gift cards to use, but you might want to check the balance before going to shop.