Gift card payments - has any punter been asked for these

Has anyone been asked to pay for services by gift Card? I’ve been asked to pay that way, and more than that, i’m asked to pay in advance well before the appointment. As a first visit to this particular young lady, i’m very uncomfortable paying for the appointment before it happens.

I have never paid in advance, but can see the logic of a deposit.

Gift cards or some other method might be needed as we move to a cashless society, paying by say google will expose our private lives to much.

It is probably a scam, why would they prefer a gift card over cash?

I was once asked to buy an ApplePay card and give them the number as 'Proof' that I was able to pay. Of course, once they have the number they can spend the amount on the card and then disappear. I did not buy a card, but I did ask why they wanted a card. They said they 'Did not want to get in trouble with the police' Eh?

Some punters require or prefer a trace-free way to pay, it isn't however cash so can only be used with the retailer.

Many thanks for the replies. I have been asked for these card payments here in Dundee by about 4 girls, who all contacted me on WhatsApp to say they were up for sex; was i? I had left my contact telephone number i think, on the site of one girl on Vivastreet or Secret Hostess. It seems these girls found/shared my number and started to contact me. In every case, after sending me quite raunchy pictures and price lists, when it got to the point of agreeing a meet up, they then ask for payment in advance by PayPal or gift card - Steam cards are the most wanted or Google Pay or last of all, iTunes cards. They provide web sites where these can be bought. They ask - for their protection and security (Eh? indeed!) - for a payment of £150 or £200 by card. They ask for the card code/redemption number to be given to them - sent by WhatsApp or e-mail, in return for which they will tell you there house number and address. When you say you want to pay cash, they say No babe. They need the card payment because - they all say (it’s like a script) - that they’ve been ripped off or raped by customers so many times before, they don’t trust anyone not to rip them off every time. If you’re gullible, you say ok and buy the card. You then say you have the card and you’re ready to go and visit them. Where do i come? They tell you a street and post code and you drive to the street. Then you ring to say you’re there and they ask you to give them the redemption code of the card. When you say you’ll give it to them when you get to the door, they produce this cock and bull story about having to have the code redeemed by them first before they can tell you the house number to come to - for their security! When you say you won’t oblige, they say they can’t let you see them till they have redeemed the card. When i stupidly trusted one of them with the card detail, she said, after a considerable pause whilst she redeemed the card, that the card had already been used. It was unredeemable. I knew bloody well it hadn’t been redeemed - before i sent her the code - and i realised i was being royally robbed. This has happened with at least 4 girls here in the Dundee and Arbroath area. I’ve lost - the more fool me - a few hundred quid in the last 3 weeks, trying to get to see these women for services they say they offer. I don’t think they see any clients at all.
Having trusted one particularly sexy lass - whose given me four different names for her and used about 6 different telephone numbers, i attempted to buy a card for £200 online. When i put in my card details to pay, i had the response from the card site, saying your bank has not authorised this payment. I thought ok, i’ll buy a card in a supermarket, as i had done on three occasions before. When i went to use my bank card however, i found it was blocked. My bank had blocked my card. When i called the bank to ask what was going on, they put me through (it took the better part of an hour waiting to be connected) to someone in the visa fraud dept of the bank. He said that yes, the payment had been refused because they have experienced such a high occurrence of scams with gift cards, they treat all such purchases as highly suspicious. He asked me who i was buying the card for and for what purpose; what was the name and address of the person i was buying the card for; how long had i known them; where and how had i met them. When i couldn’t supply this information, i learnt that my entire bank account had been frozen. It was not only that the bank (the Nationwide in case you’re wondering) had refused a payment they believed (correctly) was a scam on me, but they shut down my entire bank account, even making it impossible for me to access it via my app. They told me i would have to get the individual i was wanting to give the gift card to, to come into a branch of the bank with me, bringing their bank statement and identification document with them. Only if i present this information about the person i am trying to buy a gift card for, will my account be unfrozen. This is still the state of my banking affairs. I’m locked out of it.
So now, thanks to this young woman, whom i’ve never met, though had lengthy discussions with over the past two weeks, i am shut out of my bank account, which the Nationwide will not open until i can satisfy them that i am not being scammed. There is no way that i can provide them with that information. I have given them the name of the young woman concerned and her street name and post code, which under a completely different name and telephone number, she had given me a couple of weeks ago. I also gave them the name i have found, which she has given me, under which she appears on Facebook. The photograph she uses on Facebook she had already sent me by WhatsApp, along with a number of other photographs and videos of her, some of which Facebook would not tolerate on their site. So i know it’s her Facebook page.
I’ve been a gullible fool, thinking this lass was genuine, and sending her codes for cards i purchased at the supermarket (via photographs on WhatsApp) for her to redeem. But still, after some 3 weeks of exchanges between us, i haven’t been able to see her and my bank account is shut off to me. All pretty disastrous.
I can only warn against any of these supposed providers, refusing to take cash and asking for card payments or PayPal payments, BEFORE you’ve learnt their address and location, are not to be trusted and should be reported as thieves and scammers.
Do i go to the police with this? Or is there somewhere else i can complain about these women, who are clearly no better than common thieves? They give the escorting world a thoroughly bad name and destroy the basis of trust upon which the provision of escort services has always depended. I am happy to supply the telephone numbers these women (all youngsters in their 20s) have used in contacting me, plus the transcripts of the text and picture conversations i have had with them. I’d quite happily serve as a witness for the prosecution to see them dealt with by the law.
Kajubi - a punter of some 20 years indulgence.

Sorry to have to say it, but yes you have been gullible, extremely so, in providing card details and the rest of it. Although you've given a lengthy account of it, I'm still not sure exactly where you are, although it's been a minor disaster. Minor not major, at least you haven't lost thousands.

Surely the best way out of this is to arrange a meeting with a senior bank branch official, male, and bite the bullet and give him as much information as required, a bit embarrassing though it would be. Your objective is to unfreeze bank accounts, close them probably and move anything left there to another account. In other words to cut your losses and get clear of it.

Steer clear I'd say of fraud inquiries and particularly the police. Not because you've anything to fear from the cops but if they took this seriously, as they might, and went after these women, you could end up as a court witness in a lurid tale of being a mug punter scammed by harlots and strumpets which could end up all over the papers. Which I'm sure you definitely do not want.

A quiet sit down with a bank official sounds the best bet. I'm sure he'd understand your desire for maximum discretion and be as helpful as possible, so you can just write off your losses and get your banking arrangements in proper order again. And you won't be the first scam victim of various kinds they've had to deal with, although the bank guy might be tempted to start exploring the escort business himself after hearing your exciting tale.

I should have emphasised also that trying to sort this out over the phone is definitely not the way to do it.

Many thanks for your advice. That was very kind of you to take the trouble to reply so fully. I’m very grateful. I have a meeting with a bank manager tomorrow.
My current bank have unfrozen my account after i supplied documentation in relation to genuine (non-scamming) payments i had sent recently to families i support in Uganda. I also had to admit i had attempted to purchase a gift card for escort purposes and that i would not do such a thing ever again. Seems the Nationwide regards it’s customers as recalcitrant school boys.
I think i now have some mark on my credit rating because i find i’m excluded from using any money transferring services at all. The friendly new bank manager i’m seeing tomorrow says he will look at my credit record to see what blocks there may be there.
Again thank you for your advice. All very sound and helpful.
Kajubi.

I have often wished that the girls had some sort of gift-card system so that one could buy a session as a present for someone else. You know, a sort of 'corporate gift'. I wanted to do that for my son when he turned 18, but I was afraid that he would spend cash on something else.

Oundlegent Wrote:
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> I have never paid in advance, but can see the
> logic of a deposit.
>


You're so wrong! In this hobby cash is king. Pay at the punt only. It's what seasoned punters do.