Actually, I think there would be a paper trail with a gift card unless you bought it at a store with cash. There would definitely be a paper trail if you use your CC to buy the gift card and especially if you use your Amazon account to send the gift card to the provider. If you are going to go to all of that trouble to bring $200, $400 or whatever amount of cash to a CVS to buy a gift card, you might as well just bring the cash with you to the session. Also, buying expensive gift cards tends to get you unwanted attention at stores due to fraud/scam protection. Seems like more of a hassle to me IMO. I've also heard about stings where if you bring specific items, it helps the cops to prove your intent. It's one thing to have cash on you, but to agree to bring gift cards, it is very specific and can link you to texts.