PIERRE, S.D.(KCCR)- Black Friday and the unofficial start of the holiday shopping season arrives at the end of the week.  Gift cards area a quick and easy way give a gift but a new study by the Better Business Bureau shows scammers are using gift cards to get rich just as quick.

Jessie Schmidt with the Better Business Bureau in South Dakota says one of the key findings in the investigation is that technology is making it possible to restore some of the lost funds.

Schmidt says there are a number of red flags to watch for if someone is requesting gift cards for certain transactions.

The Federal Trade Commission’s Consumer Sentinel Network has reported over 177-thousand scams involving gift cards since 2020 with 690-million dollars in reported losses.