Ontario grandmother buys $500 Walmart gift card that was nearly empty. Here's what happened

How an unopened $500 Walmart gift card was drained Barbara Chalovich battled Walmart for six months after discovering a $500 gift card given to her grandson was fraudulently drained.

For the last six months, an Ontario grandmother has been trying to get her money back after buying a Walmart gift card that turned out to be nearly empty when her grandson wanted to use it.

"When Max went to use the $500 gift card, there was only $62.50 left on the card," Barbara Chalovich, Max's grandmother, told CTV News Toronto.

Chalovich, of Mississauga, said she gave her grandson the gift card in June when he graduated from university.

But when he went to use the gift card a week later to buy camping equipment, it already had been used for multiple purchases even though he opened the new gift card at the checkout with the Walmart cashier present.

"When they realized it only had $62 on the card, they ran a history and found fraudulent charges, and he doesn't live in the town where the fraudulent charges were made," Kim Chalovich, Max's mother, said.

Barbara Chalovich said trying to get a refund from Walmart has been frustrating. While Chalovich was told to submit paperwork to the company, she said there had been no word of when or if she would get a refund, as it has now been six months since she bought the gift card.

"I'm disappointed, and I'm upset that they can't do something about this at the store level," said Chalovich.

With gift card fraud, thieves typically steal the cards from a store, write down their bar codes, and place fraudulent stickers on them. Then, when the card is activated, the money is added to the scammer's gift card rather than the legitimately purchased card.

A spokesperson for Walmart Canada told CTV News Toronto that they have been in contact with Chalovich.

"We reissued her a new gift card for the full amount and apologized for the service she received when she brought this concern to our attention," the spokesperson said in a statement.

"In cases where an investigation finds a customer is a victim of gift card fraud involving a Walmart gift card, we reimburse them for the full amount of their Walmart gift card. We take fraud protection seriously and take steps to educate customers and associates, including anti-fraud signage, and have imposed limits on how much can be loaded onto a gift card at one time."

After about six months of waiting, Chalovich and her grandson were pleased to get a replacement $500 gift card.

"This is great. I'm so happy this has finally been dealt with," said Chalovich.

To protect yourself from gift card fraud, examine gift cards before buying them, and if they look tampered with, don't buy them. Only buy gift cards behind the counter or online and save your receipt in case of a problem.