Planning to purchase any gift cards this weekend, or maybe over the next few weeks? Be careful! So many of them these days are turning out to be already drained. Bill Sampson has a stack of unused gift cards,

AARP says to look for signs of gift card tampering, purchase electronic gift cards directly from the store's website or try to buy gift cards kept behind the counter. Luckily, Sampson still had his receipt and was able to get a refund.

Holiday gift exchange scams