That postcard saying $309 in free gas cards is waiting for you? The fee is the whole scam

A postcard turns up in your mailbox. It looks the part - a barcode, a tracking number, a "Final Notice" stamp - and it says $309.64 in gas and grocery vouchers is being held in your name. All you have to do is call the number and cover a small fee to release it. The Better Business Bureau flagged this one on August 5, and versions of it are landing in mailboxes across the country.

The fee is the trap, not a formality. In one reported case the "processing fee" was just $5 - and the instant the caller read out a card number, the scammers ran a second charge of $46, for $51 gone and no gift cards, ever. Other people get quietly enrolled in a recurring subscription they never agreed to. Check the sender, too: one batch came from something calling itself "AAPP", a deliberate near-miss for AARP meant to borrow a trusted name.

One rule cuts through all of it: a real prize never asks you to pay to receive it. No legitimate company charges a "processing," "activation" or "shipping" fee to hand you a free gift card. If a postcard, text or call pressures you to pay something small up front to unlock something big, that small payment is the scam - and giving out a card number is usually the worse half, because that's what they were fishing for all along. Don't call the number on the card; if you're curious whether a company is real, look it up yourself and reach it through its own website.

No app can intercept a postcard, so the rule above is your real defence here. Where Tendvane can help is the online cousins of these offers: if a "claim your reward" site ever leaves your browser with a strange new homepage or toolbar, its Safety check and "browser hijacked" repair can spot and undo it.