Ontario senior's friends found gift cards given to them were empty. Consumers warned of 'gift card draining' | CBC News

Windsor Windsor senior Mark Duguay with the Tim Hortons gift cards he bought for friends.(Dalson Chen/CBC) Mark Duguay shows the Tim Hortons gift cards he bought from a Dollarama location in Windsor.(Dalson Chen/CBC) Jennifer Matthews, CEO of the Better Business Bureau for Western Ontario, said what happened to Duguay has happened to other consumers as scammers have been known to 'drain' gift cards.(CBC News) Duguay with the empty Tim Hortons gift cards he bought for friends.(Dalson Chen/CBC) 'Never again,' says Windsor, Ont., senior after embarrassment of empty gift cards Mark Duguay says friends couldn't redeem $275 on Tim Hortons cards he bought them Store-bought gift cards might seem like convenient stocking stuffers this time of year, but one Windsor, Ont., man says he'll never purchase them again - after wasting $275 on cards drained by scammers. "I felt like a total idiot," said Mark Duguay, 66. "Very much embarrassed." Duguay said earlier this month, his seniors' euchre club decided to do something nice for the club's five main organizers. A collection was taken up, generating $275. Duguay was then tasked with using the money to buy five Tim Hortons gift cards, each with $55 on them. Duguay obtained the cards from a Dollarama location. The euchre club gave the cards to the organizers at a gathering on Dec. 10, as a collective show of appreciation. WATCH | Tips on how to avoid gift card scams: Duguay said that the next day, each of the five recipients came back to him and said their cards couldn't be redeemed for any amount. He checked the cards himself with the same results. "It says 'access denied' on all the cards." 'There's nothing we can do' Duguay said he went back to the Dollarama location to try to get a refund, but was told he needed to take up the problem with Tim Hortons - since he couldn't readily prove to the store that the cards weren't used by the recipients or by himself. "They kept saying, 'There's nothing we can do,'" Duguay said. In a statement to CBC Windsor, Dollarama advises that its customer service teams review gift card-related issues "on a case-by-case basis to determine appropriate resolution, as each card issuer has its own policies regarding reimbursement and replacement." Dollarama said its stores have measures in place to help reduce the risk of gift card fraud. "However, our ability to prevent fraudulent activity is limited once a transaction is completed and the gift card leaves our premises." Tim Hortons did not respond to a request for comment. Consumers warned of 'gift card draining' Jennifer Matthews, CEO of the Better Business Bureau for Western Ontario, said what happened to Duguay is "unfortunately, not an uncommon experience, especially at this time of year." In recent years, the Better Business Bureau has regularly warned the public of a scam known as "gift card draining." "When these cards are in a common area of the store, what these scammers do very well is they take the...

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