INDIANAPOLIS — Nancy's life savings was stuck on Applebee's gift cards.
Twelve, $500 gift cards to be exact.
"That's all the money I own," she sighed, "right here."
She put $6,000 cash on those cards after someone claiming to be with social security called her on her cellphone and said her bank account was hacked.
"This is a picture he (the scammer) sent me to prove that he was who he said he was," Nancy explained.
The scammer said that in order to keep her cash safe from the hack, it needed to be pulled from the bank immediately and stored on gift cards.
Those gift cards, the scammer told Nancy, needed to come from Walmart and bought using self-checkout.
His retailer of choice was Apple.
But, by accident, Nancy bought Applebee's instead.
"He was irritated," Nancy said. "His plans weren't going as planned."
Still, he wanted the card numbers and PIN information to drain the funds. That's when Nancy realized it was a scam.
"I was feeling angry, but I wasn't in a panic yet because I was going to just go back to Walmart, and I'm just going to go sell these back. The panic hit when Walmart slammed the door in my face and said, 'Oh, no, but we don't buy back gift cards,'" Nancy said.
She and her neighbor said they also called Applebee's Guest Relations multiple times. They suggested going back to Walmart.
So, Nancy considered selling the gift cards. While it sounds like an OK plan, there are catches.
Two gift card resale sites do not accept Applebee's cards.
A third resale site has active alerts from Better Business Bureau and a fourth does not let people sell cards with more than $100. When Nancy asked Applebee's to break up the $500 cards into smaller dollar increments, they said no.
Cristina Miranda, with the Federal Trade Commission, said, according to their 2023 data, they received 41,632 fraud reports about gift cards or prepaid cards.
"Gift cards are really popular with scammers because they're really easy for people to find and to buy, and they're more like cash," Miranda said.
The losses from those 41,632 reports totaled $217 million.
"Whenever we receive a complaint, know that it's being looked at by investigators behind the scene, by law enforcement behind the scene," Miranda said.
After WTHR reached out the Applebee's media team, they said Nancy would be getting all of her money refunded by the end of February. Walmart did not respond to a 13News request for comment.