New Gift Card Law Helps Prevent Scams

Gift card scams are on the rise, so it’s more important than ever to be informed. In Erie County, we want to educate consumers and prevent them from falling victim to such scams.

Scammers often ask for gift cards as payment, as these types of funds are nearly impossible to trace. One-quarter of all consumer fraud reported in the United States involving money loss is connected to gift cards. The Federal Trade Commission reported that in 2022, nearly 65,000 consumers filed a complaint about gift card scams, amounting to total losses of $228.3 million.

Effective June 20, 2023, under New York State General Business Law, all businesses selling gift cards must display a notice, at or near where any gift card or gift certificate is displayed or sold, to caution consumers about gift card fraud.

Remember: gift cards should only be used for gifts, not to make payments of any kind.

If you receive any communication asking for payment in the form of a gift card, don’t respond—it’s a scam! And please contact the Erie County Office of Consumer Protection at 716-858-1987.

Learn more about the Erie County Office of Consumer Protection at: https://erie.gov/ConsumerProtection

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=Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) will run for governor of Alabama rather than seek a second term in the Senate, reported Yellowhammer News on Thursday.

"Back in state while Congress is in recess, Tuberville told a group of donors at a private event on Wednesday night that his mind is officially made up," reported Grayson Everett. "Rather than seeking re-election to the U.S. Senate, he is ready to run his next race in Alabama, and serve the people of the state in Montgomery instead of Washington."

A former football coach, Tuberville initially wanted to run for governor in 2018, "but decided against it when Kay Ivey chose to run for the office she constitutionally stepped into following Robert Bentley’s resignation in 2017" — which had been triggered by an explosive scandal involving Bentley using government resources to further an extramarital affair.

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In 2020, Tuberville ousted Trump's former attorney general Jeff Sessions, who held the Senate seat until 2017, in a primary where Sessions was seeking his old office back, and then defeated Democratic Sen. Doug Jones, who had been elected in a massive upset when Roy Moore, the Republican former state chief justice running in the special election to replace Sessions, was accused of inappropriate behavior with children. Moore went on to sue one of his accusers for defamation, but lost that case in 2022.

Since being elected, Tuberville — a steadfast supporter of President Donald Trump — has been at the center of numerous controversies.

He has questioned whether white nationalism is an inherently racist ideology, said that slavery reparations are an attempt to hand out money to "the people that do the crime," and spent months under the Biden administration blocking vital military appointments to try to force the Pentagon to stop giving female servicemembers medical leave for abortions.