KHON2 - Woman left with worthless gift card: What you need to know to protect your money

Imagine getting a gift card for the holidays, only to find out it’s practically worthless. That’s what happened to Colleen Nakama-Amerino, a viewer who reached out to KHON through “Report It”. “I received it as a gift for my mother-in-law early this month so I went to target yesterday to go and use it but when I went the cashier scanned it it said zero balance.” Her $50 gift card had been drained all the way down to zero. Colleen found out her card had been emptied out by someone thousands of miles away. Jason Kama with the Better Business Bureau of Hawaii says this kind of thing can happen if you don’t know what to look for. “A thing to know about gift cards is it usually involved with a number and a pin. Those are the two security methods that the cards use to allow people not to take money off of it until they’re purchased.” First appeared on KHON2 -