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I guess another, more controversial regulatory path we could go down is:

Does the world really need gift cards? Do their few, anachronistic legit use cases outweigh the scam use cases? I personally believe gift cards are an overall net negative, even just considering the amount of plastic and packaging wasted on them, but add on the scam aspect, and we have to ask: should gift cards even be a thing?



If not gift cards, something else.

They're just currently the most effective "give me some numbers over the phone and now I have money" currently available.

It used to be Western Union, but it would move to something else.

Cash, money orders, PayPal, Zelle, any number of things have been used and will be used.


You’re absolutely right and I can tell you’ve given this topic much more thought than I have. Thanks!


https://www.cbsnews.com/news/gift-card-scam-get-your-money-b... says that gift card fraud was c. $200M in 2022, and that people have about $20 billion in unspent gift cards. Flow vs stock, but it seems like the majority of usage is legit. (Though maybe not for particular businesses).


> Do their few, anachronistic legit use cases outweigh the scam use cases?

Anachronistic? I still give these as small gifts all the time, and every grocery or department store I go in seems to have a rack of them at the checkout stand.




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