I had another bad card experience a couple days ago. This time, the grey stuff over the PIN looked pristine, but right after I paid and scratched it off (intending to move the money to BB immediately via smartphone to avoid the problem I had last time), I found that the last four digits of the PIN were gone.
Here is the good part. I called VR customer service immediately, while standing to the side of the CVS check out counter. I wanted them to freeze the card to preserve the funds so that they wouldn't be stolen. The customer service rep did even better. He was able to take down the digits from the PIN that were still on the card, as well as some other identifying numbers from elsewhere on the card, and then load my funds into my BB account over the phone.
Swing and a miss for the fraudsters. But this game is definitely a little tricky at times. Oddly enough, it has made it more interesting than just the same old trip to CVS once a week.
The moral of the story from my two bad experiences in the last two weeks: Scratch to get your PIN and offload by smartphone immediately while still at CVS, every time. This avoids the fraudsters getting the money off the VR before you do if you have one where the PIN is still on it but the fraudsters know the PIN too. This also allows you to call up VR and get your money loaded before the fraudsters steal it if you get a card with part of the PIN missing.