(Photo By Flickr User Melvin A)

Do you have plans to give gift cards to family or friends this holiday season?

Gift cards can make shopping easy, but WGEM-TV & the Better Business Bureau (BBB), are offering tips to consumers to help avoid scams.

Examine the gift card: Before buying a gift card, be sure to look to make sure the PIN number isn’t exposed, or the packaging hasn’t been tampered with. If anything looks suspicious grab a new one.

Scammers are known to remove gift cards from the store rack and write down numbers associated with that card. They put the card back on the rack and wait until a customer buys it. Once the customer buys the card, the scammer uses the number online and wipes the gift card clean before the customer even has a chance to use it.

Scammers are impatient and will usually put the gift card toward the front of the rack, so it’s best to grab a card from the back.

Treat it like cash: If you lose your gift card or someone steals it, report it to the company. Some may not allow you to recover any of the funds, and others will but for a fee.

Register your gift card: Some retailers allows you to register your gift card. Registering your gift card makes it easier to keep track of any misuse, you can report it sooner and potentially end up saving the money that is stored.

Consider the financial condition of the retailer: If you purchase a gift card from a company that files for bankruptcy or goes out of business, you may only have a short amount of time to use gift cards. If a story abruptly closes, you could lose the funds on the gift card.

Use caution when buying from a third party: If you purchase a gift card from a third party website you may end up with a gift card that has no money on it, is expired, or was fraudulently obtained.

Don’t pay using a gift card: No reputable company would ask for payment via a gift card. If you receive a call asking you must pay using a gift card, hang up. Scammers use scare tactics by threatening you with jail time unless you pay them immediately with a gift card.

Keep your information private: No reputable business would ever ask you for personal information when purchasing a gift card. If they do, take that as a big red flag and buy one elsewhere.

Mara Clingingsmith with the BBB in Quincy, IL, also advises people to use gift cards as soon as possible.

To track scams in your area, log on to .www.bbb.org/scamtracker/us.