Got a tip from this guy on X. His tip is that if you take your credit card (or your ID) and slide it into the opening on the back of the VGC up towards the magnetic bar code… if you immediately hit the sticky gel, then the card is LIKELY GOOD. However, if your card slides all the way up, then that VGC is DEFINITELY TAMPERED. That’s because these scammers are using super glue to tape up the magnetic stripe and just putting the cards back into the packaging. Of course when the scammers start to re-use the sticky gel, then this trick will no longer work, but for the time being, I think it’s a genius quick way to guesstimate if the VGC have been tampered with or not. This is a lot easier than ripping up the VGC before buying. Be safe out there folks.
Good tips. But will still only buy them when I have the time to empty them immediately.