ATLANTA (WJBF) - The FBI is warning of an uptick in holiday gift card scams. Investigators say scammers are placing fake barcodes on the back of gift cards so when you buy the gift card, the cashier scans the fake barcode which quietly pushes your money into the scammer's account and leaves you with a zero balance on the card. Another scam is when scammers take off the gift card pin code and leave you without a way to redeem the card. The FBI says protect yourself by reviewing a gift card before you buy it, including looking for signs of tampering and making sure the barcode matches the gift card's packaging number. Another strategy is to pull a gift card from the middle or the back but even that has no guarantee and if you notice any package that is ripped, wrinkled or bent to avoid buying that gift card and reporting it to authorities. "Scammers are going into retailers where you see the big shelving with all the gift cards," said FBI spokesperson Tony Thomas. "They are taking those gift cards and shopping the cards out of the store and taking them to where they are operating out of and scraping the foil and then taking the code of that gift card and it also alerts when you put money on that card." Investigators say to protect yourself, make sure your gift card barcode matches the packaging barcode and look for any signs of damage. If you are the victim of a gift card or online scam, you can file a complaint to the at www.Ic3.gov.