We had a phishing attack at work and one person fell for it. The attacker tricked him into buying Apple gift cards and sent him pictures of them.
Now my question is: what are Apple gift cards for? As far as I know, they can only be redeemed at Apple, and isn't that too risky? How do these people get money from them?
Cards can be activated in an account, spent on applications, music or subscriptions, and scammers simply resell codes online for real money. That's the point. The victim buys the card at full price, and the scammer sells the code cheaper and makes a quick profit. That's why the market for cheap iTunes gift cards exists, people are really looking for an opportunity to get a code with a discount, because it works just like a regular one. For protection, it's always worth checking the sender and remembering that no company will ask for such cards as payment.