Woman buys $100 Home Depot gift card at Target. Then she allegedly discovers it has $0 balance: ‘What customers are supposed to do’

A woman says Target refused to refund her after she purchased a $100 Home Depot gift card. Someone redeemed the card months before she bought it. She now questions who is responsible when a gift card has no value at the time of purchase. In a video shared on social media, the woman, whose identity and location remain unclear, said she purchased the Home Depot gift card from Target on July 9, 2026, as a gift for clients.

She then said in the post that the recipients opened the package in front of a Home Depot cashier, scratched off the PIN, and discovered the card had a $0 balance. According to the woman, Home Depot employees checked the card’s transaction history and confirmed its purchase in October 2025. They then gave her a November 2025 redemption date.

“I didn’t even buy the card until July 9th, 2026,” she said. “So somehow I purchased a gift card that appears to have been used eight months before I even purchased it.”

She returned to Target, receipt in hand

The woman then said she returned to Target with the receipt, packaging, and gift card. She claimed Target employees confirmed that their records showed she bought the $100 gift card but told her they could not provide a refund because gift cards are nonrefundable. According to the post, she opened a fraud investigation with Home Depot. Meanwhile, she is trying to find out what options consumers have when they discover someone compromised a gift card before they bought it.

“Meanwhile, I’m out $100, and my clients received a gift that they can’t even use,” she said. “Has this happened to anyone else? Because I honestly don’t even know what consumers are supposed to do or where they turn when something like this happens.” Target has not publicly commented on the woman’s situation.

While the specific details of the woman’s claim have not been independently verified, the type of fraud she described matches a known gift card scam that consumer protection officials have warned about. According to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), scammers sometimes remove gift cards from store displays.

They then access the card number and PIN and return the cards to store racks. After an unsuspecting customer purchases and activates the card, scammers can use the stolen information to drain the balance.

The FTC advises consumers to inspect gift card packaging before purchase. They also recommend looking for signs of tampering, keeping receipts, and reporting suspicious activity to the retailer and gift card company.

As the Home Depot gift card story spread online, a commenter responding to the woman’s video described a similar scheme, claiming thieves sometimes open gift card packaging, copy the card information, then return the card to the shelf and wait for a customer to activate it. That explanation is generally consistent with the FTC’s description of gift card tampering.

Target has previously warned customers about gift card scams and said it has added security measures to help prevent tampering with certain gift cards. Home Depot also guides customers who believe a gift card has been compromised.

For consumers who encounter a gift card with a missing balance, the FTC recommends contacting the card issuer and retailer as soon as possible. Keeping the receipt and original packaging can help companies investigate whether fraud occurred.