> What's the rationale?

Most likely stolen cards. Stolen credit cards are used to purchase gift cards which are then resold to unsuspecting buyers. Think of it as stolen money laundering.

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saurik 3 days ago | parent | next [-]

> It would make more sense if they just locked the person out of redeeming gift cards or something, not the entire account.

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cheschire 3 days ago | parent | prev [-]

I always wondered why sites like g2a sell gift cards at a price higher than the gift card is actually worth.

A lot of things are clicking into place for me in this thread.

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yreg 3 days ago | parent | next [-]

Youtube is full of scam baiting videos – of people who waste scammer's time for entertainment.

A very usual scenario is that the scammer pretends to be a technician doing some remote support and for example pretends to provide some refund. Then they pretend that they've mistakenly sent out e.g. 10x the amount and they ask for the difference back, claiming that their job is on the line.

Crypto would work, but since they target old and tech-illiterate people, the easiest way is usually to ask the victim to go to a store, buy gift cards and read out the codes.

Google kitboga (a known scam baiter) for the videos.

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nullfield 2 days ago | parent [-]

“Do not redeem the…! WHY DID YOU DO THAT!?” lol

They’re great entertainment pieces, and almost a commentary on the state of the world through the lens of microeconomics, with both sides behaving in a way they think is best for them.

For the baiters, they get engagement and, sometimes, the feeling of revenge for a scam visited upon an elderly relative; for the scammer, maybe it’s worse, as we know some people are trafficked into places then forced to scam people (or maybe they just want money). Still, kinda paints the world in a sad light.

	▲	yreg a day ago \| parent [-]
		I guess the days of the scammer grunts are numbered. It is eventually going to be cheaper and more efficient to use a language model. Only the scammer architects who come up with the schemes will be able to extract value. When that happens, there won't be much entertainment nor that much ethical value in scam-baiting. We need to enjoy it while we can.

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rvnx 3 days ago | parent | prev [-]

Well on a similar topic, next step you could look at crypto’s and casinos. What are the biggest players doing there.