Consumer Alert: Why you should avoid gift cards this holiday season

Here's a reader who lost $1,000 — until our advocacy team got involved

Here's a holiday tradition you might want to skip this year: Giving your loved one a gift card.

Gift cards are not only a favorite tool of scammers, but they’re also easy to lose. And once you do, there's no getting them back — unless you have a good consumer advocate on your side.

Just ask Beth Dammann, who received five $500 Airbnb gift cards from her kids last Christmas. Dammann contacted our team last week because she'd lost two of them.

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