-snip-
Yeah, I should have known but I needed that account and 25$ was not too big of a loss for me. The gift card has been drained though. Thank you for looking into it.
Ah damn... That's unlucky, man. My advice for when you deal in the future would be to:
a) Always check the person's reputation, including untrusted feedback. If there is negative reputation or no reputation at all, then be extremely cautious. Research any email addresses, social media, and bitcoin addresses that are associated with the account to see if there are any previous connections with other scams.
b) Use escrow in all scenarios unless you are willing to lose the amount you send.
c) Try not to pay with gift card, because it can be hard to prove who exactly took out the funds. A scammer could easily take funds out of your gift card, claim that it has been emptied, and refuse to give you your goods.
If you did all of the above within this scam, you would have easily saved yourself your money. I understand that $25 isn't necessarily a whole lot, but remember that you're also giving the scammer income, no matter how little you lose.
