Are Apple gift cards safe to redeem?

Unfortunately, at the moment, for normal people, the legal system is our only option.

I am not a lawyer, but I have done this multiple times:

Read the T&C and search for "dispute" or "dispute resolution". Look for what you're supposed to do when you have a dispute. Follow the steps as outlined. Corporate lawyers generally take things seriously.

Best example I've yet seen of Betteridge's law.

I offer some metaphors bundled into a claim:

Silver bullets almost never beat fraud. Better to steel yourself for a never-ending grind against a horde of nameless adversaries.

I asked Gemini for some follow-ups, and lo! they are interesting to consider:

- "fraud is an evolutionary arms race fought in the trenches."

- "fraud is a siege where the attacker has infinite attempts, and the defender must succeed every time."

- "fighting fraud is not a battle, it is industrial waste management."

I just bought my niece a Visa gift card and she said she had the hardest time using it. Not many would accept it. What's up with this latest gift card scammed .. tampered gift cards. Has the media not done a blitz on this issue yet? It's the holiday season and many are going to be scammed! I will be giving a greeting card with cash or just cash app family members.

regardless of the resolution of Paris' case, at this point I doubt sincerely I will ever willingly purchase an Apple gift card. To be frank, most gift cards are persona non grata for myself and ~all discerning consumers I know

No, obviously... What?

The vast majority of people have no problem using them or else we'd be reading more posts similar to that one

wow, what fear mongering going on here.

Related: there is a known scam where someone will ask for payment by things like Ebay gift cards. To "prove you have the card", you are asked to read off just the last few digits of the card - which unbeknownst to the intended victim is actually all that is needed to redeem the card.

You can reliably reconstruct a SSN that is missing the first digits, if you know where the person lived when they filed for it, but that's not the same thing.

Why Ebay built this idiotic weakness into their cards is beyond me.