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Do all your holiday shopping without ever leaving home!  Virtual gift cards are the hot new convenience gift this season.  

To find out how they work, we talked with Shannon Duffy, a busy, single, working mother of two with little time to spend at the mall.  Duffy first learned about virtual gift cards last year.

"They're great for people like myself who are always on the go," she told us.

Duffty logs on to the growing number of stores offering online gift cards, picks the amount she'd like to spend, enters her credit card info, the recipents name and email addres-and her shopping is done.

"Buying a virtual gift card is super easy to do," she explained.

The virtual gift cards can be spent online immediately. Some businesses let you print it out and spend it at the store.  And other retailers let you save the gift card info to your phone, and then scan in the code from the screen on your mobile.

Karen Renk, who is the executive director for the Incentive Marketing Association, explained that mobile technology is the hottest thing going right now.

"As mobile technology is advancing so quickly more and more retailers are adopting the use of virtual cards," Renk said.  She added, virtual gift cards are also a hot trend in social networking.  Many stores are giving them away to web customers who visit their facebook and online fan pages.

"Retailers see a tremendous potential in the use of virtual gift cards to attract new customers and to reward loyal customers," Renk pointed out.

But there are some pitfalls to online gift giving.  Duffy actually received one once, thought it was spam and deleted it.  She and her gift giver had to battle with the retailer to get it reissued. Spam filters can be a real virtual gift card grinch, said Gail Hillebrand, who is with Consumers Union.

"If the email doesn't arrive it's like---the gift doesn't arrive," she explained.

Hillebrand suggested giving your recipient a heads up you sent them an online gift card, so it doesn't become virtual junk mail. Some other info to keep in mind:

*Cyber gift cards are regulated just like plastic gift cards under federal law.

*A virtual gift card can't expire for five years.

*You can't be charged dormancy fees as long as you use it once every 12 months.

But it's wise to use your online gift card fast because if the store goes out of business, you could be out of luck.

Always read these little terms and conditions before you buy the virtual gift card to see what the specific rules are.

Duffy, who has had mixed experiences, said the convenience won out and she will be logging on to shop again this holiday season.

"They are perfect for sending and receiving. They're great for people who are homebound that can't get out to physical stores. They just log on and send one that way," she explained.

If you ever lose your virtual gift card code or print out, call the retailer immediately. It may be able to re-issue you a new one with the amount of value remaining on it at the time you report it.