These are the best gift cards to buy, but don’t get fooled by holiday scammers

It happened again. The holidays are here, but you’ve run out of time to buy or make a thoughtful present for everyone on your list.

It turns out you’re in good company — last-minute shoppers (and those with, shall we say, a deficit of imagination) spent nearly $400 billion on gift cards in North America last year. But not all gift cards are created equal.

WalletHub researched gift cards this holiday season and ranked them based on features like popularity, shipping fees, and even resale value if you get someone a card they don’t want to use. The site also noted the average discount offered on the cards — yes, you can often buy $20 worth of purchasing power for less than $20.

Be careful, though. Scammers have been hard at work across the country on gift card schemes.

There are numerous ways that scammers trick people into buying bogus cards. Sometimes they will tamper with gift cards at stores and steal the money after the cards are sold. The Federal Trade Commission warns people to make sure if they’re buying a gift card at a store that the card still has a protective sticker covering its PIN; a card with an exposed PIN may have been compromised.

Even if the PIN is still covered, that’s no guarantee the card hasn’t been tampered with. Some thieves will copy the information on unsold gift cards, including the PIN, then put a new sticker over the PIN to hide what they’ve done, according to the online security service Aura. Then when the card is sold and activated, they’ll try to drain its value before the buyer has the chance to use it.

If you can, buy a gift card that is locked up by the retailer to reduce the risk of fraud.

Other scammers target victims on the phone. They pretend to be government officials or businesses and convince people to buy gift cards and give them the PIN numbers.

“No real business or government agency will ever tell you to buy a gift card to pay them. Always keep a copy of your gift card and store receipt,� said the FTC on its website.

With the warnings out of the way, here are the top-ranked cards, according to WalletHub:

1. Starbucks

The big green giant. The captain of caffeine. Starbucks is WalletHub’s No. 1 gift card, scoring high on resale value ($77.62 on a $100 card) and on average discount for those buying the cards, about 5%.

2. Target

You could buy someone a Target gift card so they can go to Target and buy someone a different gift card! It’s beautiful. Target scored higher than Starbucks on resale value, at nearly $80, but had a lower “retailer rating,� which measured how popular the brand is.

3. Sephora

Help end Sephora shoplifting by getting your special someone a gift card to the personal care retailer. Sephora has lower buyer discount rates than Target and Starbucks, but clocked in an $80.83 resale value, securing the No. 3 spot in WalletHub’s rankings.

4. Disney

Disney comes in fourth, sporting high resale value and high popularity among shoppers.

5. Chick-fil-A

The only restaurant to crack the top 10, your loved one will adore the famous chicken sandwich. But not on Sundays.

Check out the rest of the cards that WalletHub reviewed.

A gift card from a retailer, restaurant or service provider has one significant shortcoming: The money can be used only on that brand’s products or services.

Gift cards from financial companies such as MasterCard or Visa can be used just about anywhere, but the trade off for that flexibility is that they all carry a service charge — a $20 gift card from these outlets will cost you more than $20.