When someone is legitimately trying to redeem 25-35 gift cards bought over time for a total of $2k, it is dastardly and horrible of Apple to block him.

When scammers trick people into buying gift cards for them, and the scammers later redeem them, say 25-35 of them bought by victims over time for a total of $2k, it is dastardly and horrible of Apple to not work harder to stop the scammers.

I happen to believe the OP here, but it's really easy to see how this happened, and why Apple's people could feel like they're doing a Good Thing™ here.