The Walmart Gift Card Class Action Form Asks for Your Social Security Number — Is It a Scam?
One of the first rules of avoiding scams is to not give out your Social Security number to anyone you don’t know and trust — especially on the internet. But that’s what victims of a Walmart gift card scam are being asked to do in order to recoup the money they lost.
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A notice on the kccsecure.com website, which features the U.S. Department of Justice seal, and is listed on their site, provides a “Petition for Remission” that allows scam victims to get back gift card money that was frozen last decade after Walmart noticed a pattern of fraud. To get the money, one of the requirements is that you provide your Social Security number.
In this case, you don’t need to worry about your SSN getting into the wrong hands. The Petition for Remission site directly addresses why you are required to provide your Social Security number in its FAQ section, which says the following:
“If your petition is approved, it must be reviewed by the Treasury Offset Program to verify that you do not owe any money to the federal government or certain state debts. If you owe money, your payment will be used to pay your debt. If your payment is more than the amount you owe, you will get the remainder. Your Social Security Number will not be shared or used for any other purpose.”
Victims of the scam will share nearly $4 million in remission payments as a result of the gift card scam. According to the petition website, Walmart first noticed the gift card scams in 2015 when “unknown fraudsters” directed victims to buy Walmart gift cards with values that typically ranged from $500 and $1,000.
“Between April 2016 and July 2017, Walmart froze the balances of the gift cards that were connected to this suspected fraud before the balances could be transferred to the fraudsters,” the site said. “Based on this conduct…the United States Attorney’s Office filed a Verified Complaint for Forfeiture against $3,958,060.84 in United States currency (22-USS-000172), representing the gift card balances frozen by Walmart.”
In layman’s terms, that means the Justice Department filed a lawsuit for the forfeiture of the nearly $4 million in gift card balances frozen by Walmart and the money is now available for compensation payments. The DOJ also said in a notice updated last month that a pair of individuals pleaded guilty to federal wire fraud charges tied to the Walmart gift card schemes, which involved hundreds of fraud victims from across the United States.
You might be eligible for a remission payment if, at the direction of an unknown fraudster, you bought and sent a Walmart Gift Card between April 1, 2016, and July 31, 2017, and were the victim of fraud. To apply, you must file the Petition of Remission by July 14, 2023. The acceptance of petitions postmarked after this date will be subject to the Justice Department’s discretion.
Payments will be based only on the amount loaded onto the Walmart gift card, minus any recoveries you might have received from a bank or other source. According to the petition site, your payment amount “will likely be less than the amount you lost.” You also can’t recover collateral expenses such as money transfer fees, incidental losses or transfers sent through other companies.
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If you don’t have or don’t remember your Walmart gift card number, you can still submit a petition, but you’ll need to provide other details about the transaction that can help validate the transfer. Payments won’t be issued until after the filing period has ended and all submitted petitions have been reviewed for eligibility.
You can file a Petition for Remission online at the case website (www.walmartgiftcardremission.com) or mail it to this address:
Walmart Gift Card Remission Claims Administrator
P.O. Box 6175
Novato, CA 94948-6175
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This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com: The Walmart Gift Card Class Action Form Asks for Your Social Security Number — Is It a Scam?
