@Anonymous wrote:
Easiest thing to do is to just use your cards as you normally would in everyday life and you'll avoid these problems 99.9% of the time. If you need to get a gift for your best friends wedding and can't decide what to get, don't worry and get hima $100 Bed Bath and Beyond gift card. That's a lot different then stopping into CVS every 3 days and buying $504.95 of 'purchases'.
Or having a stated income of $40,000 but spending $9,000 a month on your credit cards. Or having a $5,000 line but putting 4x your CL throughout the month through it.
+1. Don't try and game the system and you don't have to worry about it. But to answer the OP, they simply don't know for the most part. With travelers checks and the like they are rung up differently. With a gift card at most merchants it's just rung up on a regular reciept with your other purchases, it's not single out with a different transaction type that the CC companies could identify automatidly as being a gift card and treat the transaction differently.
@Anonymous wrote:
OK, this is why it is not so black and white. A certain poster here, with a name like enharu, recently posted a question about using Discover to transfer $1000 a month to his girlfriend to get ~ $120 cash back a year. Is this a real transaction? No, pure manufactured spend. Is it a lot of "abuse"? Not compared to some, but to those that don't do it, it is, and could lead to Discover reducing cash back, or stopping the send cash process, ruining it for those who use it for legitimate transactions.
Now the poster was advised not to do it, and so probably didn't, but the question arose, so I view this as a classic example of "Let him that is without sin cast the first stone" type of stuff.
+1 This. Did those guys buying tens of thousands of dollars in vanilla reloads take a risk of getting shut down for abuse? Yes, absolutely. But with this subject, I find that the discussion too often turns to - "those guys had it coming" "I wouldn't ever do anything that would be considered abuse." People can get so self-righteous (on both sides) that it really turns the discussion nasty.
@Open123 wrote:
@parakleet wrote: People can get so self-righteous (on both sides) that it really turns the discussion nasty.Nothing on the net really bothers me, since we're all sharing views.
If anything does, it would be "self righteous hypocrisy." This, I can't stand in any form.
Amen to that. You're preaching to the choir on that one! 
@Anonymous wrote:Tons of people PC before AFs are due.
Churning is a bit different than the VR method though. Banks accept those losses and realize many people may cancel or PC before the AF. It's just the nature of the game and they know it's needed to try staying competitive and expand customer base. A small amount of VRers can do more damage (for lack of a better word) than a larger number of people taking advantage of waived first year AF cards and sign up bonuses.
@Open123 wrote:
@parakleet wrote: People can get so self-righteous (on both sides) that it really turns the discussion nasty.Nothing on the net really bothers me, since we're all sharing views.
If anything does, it would be "self righteous hypocrisy." This, I can't stand in any form.
If that's truly a sore spot, tread lightly or avoid credit forums altogether, LOL! Several years ago I recall reading a post (on an unnamed forum) where someone went $50K in debt, funding an adoption, all the while planning to go BK on the debt. Anyone who said it was wrong got shouted-down for being unsupportive, LOL! The prevailing theme was: "You deserve a baby, honey! Ignore what some here are saying and enjoy the child". 
IIRC, that poster's main concern was keeping the home and to what extent she could skip out on hospital bills related to the child's many health issues.
It's the credit world we've all created and live in.