An apparent oversight by Google has led to a major problem for Target customers. It appears that Google accidentally approved an ad for a fake gift card that is designed to steal customers' money.
See also: Hackers steal Target gift cards
A Reddit user on r/assholedesign discovered the bug when he Googled his “Gift Card Balance” on mobile and found that the first result was an ad titled “Check Gift Card Balance – Target.” Except the website isn’t Target’s, but a site called “bristolhirevan.” The ad’s description says it will let you check your gift card balance “instantly.”
The website interface certainly looks like the real thing, although the real website requires you to log in to check your gift card balance, while this fake site doesn’t. Other than that, the only things that don’t look right about the website are the URL, which still has the “bristolhirevan” domain, and the fact that every link on the page leads to the real Target homepage, despite the promise of linking to an ad or gift registry. If you’re really in a hurry, you might accidentally enter your gift card number and security code, resulting in it being stolen.
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Gift card fraud appears to be on the rise. Last year, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) reported that victims of gift card fraud lost a total of $148 million in the first nine months of 2021, more than in all of 2020. Target gift cards are clearly a scam, the FTC says. Data shows that people were scammed out of $35 million worth of Target gift cards last year, more than double the amount of any other gift card brand.
As the FTC points out, gift card scams are often done over the phone, with the scammer pretending to be an employee of a company like Google or Amazon and demanding that the victim make a payment in the form of a gift card. However, fake checkout sites like these are often hidden in plain sight, even as ads on Google.
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The company has not yet made any statement on the matter.
