Gift Card Mall is an online vendor of various gift cards. They sell directly, via Ebay, and they service other sellers such as office supply stores.
To enhance security, Gift Card Mall typically mails the card in one envelope, and an “activation code” in a separate envelope. The activation code is needed to register your card online, or to use the card to make purchases.
In theory, this practice makes sense. If someone steals a gift card from your mailbox, they will not be able to use it without the activation code.
How Secure are Mail Orders from Gift Card Mall?
Recently, I purchased a gift card from Staples. The card arrived promptly in a plain envelope from Gift Card Mall.
However, when I tried to register the card, I was informed that the card had not been activated.
After several days, I still had not received the activation code.
I called Gift Card Mall in inquire about what to do. The customer service rep asked me for some identifying information, such as my street address, and the order number. This information was sufficient to validate the gift card.
The hitch is that all this identifying information was contained in the enclosure that came with the gift card.
So if someone had stolen the envelope, they would have all the information needed to activate the card, sans an activation code. Here’s a link to report any suspected mail theft to the U.S. Postal Inspection Service.
Is mail theft something that you worry about, or am I just being paranoid?
You definitely should worry mail theft. When I lived in a condo building with a locked lobby door and locked mailboxes, we still had a theft from a number of neighbors’ mailboxes.
But, why don’t you get e-gift cards? They are more secure. You just email the redemption code to your recipient.