Gift card logical loophole that can cost site owners money.

[SJ77]

• Person A buys gift card
• Person A gives gift card to person B
• Person B adds full amount of funds to account from gift card.
• Person B withdrawals full amount of funds
• Site owner looses money on the whole deal due to fee's associated with processing original purchase payment and processing a payout.

Just thought I would share this loophole with others as an FYI.

[Makoto]

Are people using your forum for money laundering? lol

I think it's a valid point though, forums that both allow members to withdraw earnings and top up their balances for in-store purchases don't really mesh well together. It'd be nice if you could separate funds that are actually earned (and can be withdrawn) from funds added via gift cards or other means.

[SJ77]

9 minutes ago, Makoto said:

Are people using your forum for money laundering? lol

LOL no, but my contributors have been using the gift card as a means for payment from other members. "Just pay me with a giftcard" because they don't have to handle the payment transaction stuff that way. Site owner foots the bill for that stuff and they simply withdrawal funds. Problem is there is nothing in it for me. I dont want them using giftcards as some sort of ALT currency.

11 minutes ago, Makoto said:

 It'd be nice if you could separate funds that are actually earned (and can be withdrawn) from funds added via gift cards or other means.

I was thinking the exact same thing, there really needs to be two different fund buckets.  I want to be able to actually make money by offering Gift Cards.. not lose money.