Complaint Rating:

I purchased a Wal-Mart gift card for my father. Fortunately I kept the receipt. When he tried to activate it on their automated system, he was asked for a lot of personal information so he hung up a brought it to me. I called the number to try and activate the card. I had the activation number and the receipt number. The automated system is a phising scheme to get you to provide all of your personal information. At no time does the system say you do not have to provide this information to activate your card. It aks for your: name, complete address, phone number, date of birth, social security number, cell phone number and provider, and email address. I kept yelling no into the phone until the automated system routed me to a person, who also tried to imply that I must provide all of this information. I was furious. They want to send a re-loadable card and try to force you to get it by providing this personal information, before they will activate your card. I was finally, after 45 minutes able to get his card activated without providing all of this information. This is a phishing scam designed to get you to rpovide enough information to have your identity stolen. I am furious, but cannot get a real person on the phone at Wal-Mart to cpmplain.