Gift cards require an initial transaction by someone at the time they are originally acquired; unless stolen, which you can typically only do with physical gift cards, unless you know how to steal digital ones.
Quite frankly gift cards as a medium of exchange is an exceedingly stupid idea for this industry. The cops can use transactions to trace any sort of financial trail they wish to follow. Gift cards leave a trail. Cash may leave a record of sale at the merchant where the goods or services were bought, but unless your identity was captured on video, or the cashier recalls your appearance, they have nothing to trace other than the serial numbers of the bills. That typically doesn't get authorities anywhere unless they are trying to bust currency counterfeiters. Of course, if you pay with something with cash and don't want others to know about it, remember to burn or shred the receipt.
The IRS on the other hand can come after you if you have grossly unsubstantiated assets. If you work as a cook at Burger King and own a mansion plus a large yacht and a Tesla, they are going to find a way to bust you unless you can prove you inherited the money or won the lottery. In this case, cash will be no safer than gift cards.
Aside from that, gift cards typically tend to expire and are only good at the merchant for which they are designated. If I want to have a nice dinner, need car maintenance, or have a medical bill to pay, then I'd have to sell this stupid Nordstrom gift card for likely much less than face value just to get money to spend somewhere else when I don't need fancy clothing at the moment. This obviously makes cash more versatile and valuable. So the question begs, why would any legit SW prefer them over cash? I wouldn't see a girl who demanded gift cards for payment, I'd just move on to the next provider.
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