Despite industry pushback, Maryland became the first state to require secure packaging for most gift cards sold at stores. “It will change packaging nationally,” one retail insider predicted.
Card draining is a scheme in which thieves remove gift cards from stores, capture their numeric codes or swap them out for counterfeit cards, and place the products back on display. When an unsuspecting customer loads money onto a tampered or counterfeit card, criminals access it online and steal the balance.
From the article…
I’ve experienced this in the past. Luckily the store Winners (a Canadian chain) was good enough to replace the cards.