Report to The Home Depot

• Demands to pay a bill or a fine with Home Depot gift cards
• Phishing emails and texts using the Home Depot name
• Tampered gift cards bought in store
• Offers of a free gift if you pay only shipping

1. 1

   Recognise the gift card demand

   Home Depot states you should never be asked to pay utility bills, bail money, debt collection or hospital bills with its gift cards. Law enforcement and the IRS never ask for gift cards either.

2. 2

   Use the fraud centre

   Home Depot keeps a Fraud Center covering phishing, gift card scams and what to do next.

3. 3

   Report it to the FTC

   For a gift card scam, Home Depot points to reportfraud.ftc.gov or the FTC on 877-382-4357.

4. 4

   Buy and check cards only through Home Depot

   Do not buy, sell or check a Home Depot gift card balance on an outside marketplace. Tampered cards are sold that way.

• The gift card numbers and the receipt
• The phone number or email that demanded payment
• The store and date of purchase

A gift card is hard to recover once the code has been shared, so speed matters. Report it to Home Depot and the card issuer the same day, and to the FTC afterwards.