Similar to a post a coupla' pages back...
While visiting a friend in LA I stopped by a Vons and saw they had a promo for 'buy 2 variable loads, get a $15 coupon', and thought, 'great, I shop at vons for food and stuff'. The topmost card on the rack already had the cardboard ripped off; this concerned me but there were a ton more, so I took the first 10 off, grabbed 2, and replaced the other 10. I informed my cashier about the abnormality.
Anyway, bought both cards, both listed as 'activated' on the little stub/receipt, and the last 4 of each barcode (the decimal version of the barcode being printed on the upper right of the barcode itself) matched. I then went about my day.
While heading home from LA I stopped by a WM to do some business, and found out that one of my two new VGCs wasn't working (tender not valid). Heading back to my car I whipped out my smartphone and checked the balance on the 'bad' card... 'pin cannot be set'. That's an odd error to get, I thought. I called the number on the back of the card and input my card info, 'card not active'. That's not good.
Inspecting both cards, as well as using a VGC from Staples as a tertiary standard, I noticed something odd. So, when you hold up a 'good' card to the light, on the back both the black text and the white BG are 'shiny'; do this with a card and you'll know what I mean. On the 'bad' card, starting just above the decimal printout of the barcode, the card was oddly dull. Running my thumb over the barcode of the 'good' card felt a slightly raised texture to the barcode; this feeling was absent on the 'bad' card. Additionally, there were horizontal striations at the edges of the 'dull' region of the bad card.
As far as I can tell, someone (very carefully) opened the package, sanded/solvent'd off the old barcode and put a new one. When "my" card was activated, a different card was in fact activated. I'm now stuck with an unactivated card, a Vons that refuses to help me by phone, a sympathetic but powerless-to-help-me-without-a-police-report CSR from metabank, and I'm out $500 until this gets fixed.
I guess the takehome is that the thieves are getting more sophisticated, 'cause this goes beyond any 'sticker on the barcode' behavior.