Elderly scam victims can't get chargebacks because gift cards aren't 'fraud'

When a scammer impersonates the IRS, a grandchild in jail, or a tech support agent and pressures an elderly person into buying $5,000 in Target or Apple gift cards and reading the codes over the phone, the victim's bank refuses to issue a chargeback. The bank's logic: the customer voluntarily purchased the gift cards with their own debit or credit card, so it is not unauthorized fraud. The gift card issuer (Target, Apple, Google) also refuses refunds because the cards were legitimately activated and redeemed -- by the scammer. The victim falls into a gap where no institution considers itself responsible. The median loss per gift card scam is $1,000 (FTC), but elderly victims frequently lose $2,500-$5,000+ in a single incident. Adults over 60 reported $2.4 billion in total scam losses in 2024, up 26% from 2023. This persists structurally because gift cards are designed to function like cash -- anonymous, irreversible, no KYC -- which is exactly why scammers demand them. No federal law requires gift card issuers to freeze or refund stolen balances, and the voluntary freezing programs some issuers run are inconsistent and poorly publicized.