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... As we head into the holiday shopping season this fall, there's no bigger waste of your money than purchasing a gift card that's worth nothing at all.

Unfortunately, buying an already drained or worthless gift card is more common than you think. Bill Sampson is well aware of that. He has a stack of unused gift cards in his kitchen, including one he recently bought while grocery shopping.

"I got a Home Depot card off the rack," he said, "all wrapped up in cardboard."

But when he got home, he said, "I opened the package, and voila, it was an Amazon gift card."

Someone had swapped the $100 Home Depot card he wanted with a worthless Amazon card.

"So someone apparently is pulling these off the shelf," he said, "slitting the package, and putting a dummy Amazon card in that hasn't been activated."

The Amazon card had no value. The Home Depot card he paid $100 for was now in someone else's hands.

"There was no sign of tampering," he said. "No sign." ...