Originally Posted by
joemeckler
The way I understand this scam. The fake bar code is tied to an actual card the scammer has. As soon as its activated the scammer has the actual card activated and full access to the funds. The buyer gets bupkis.
Sure. But as soon as the buyer opens he package, s/he'll know the scam. The fake barcode will yield he actual card the scammer has and can be cancelled at once. If the scammer simply cloned the real card when he opened the package--or even just copied down the card number/exp/CRC--he could spend the funds too as soon as the card was loaded, without anything in the package being changed to tip off the buyer there was something wrong. That could give the scammer a much longer time to cash out.