Gift Cards?

Did anyone else get the e-mail forward warning of companies filing for bankruptcy/closing stores after the first of the year and the dangers of gift cards for these stores not being valid?  I am not going to copy and paste the entire long e-mail here - the previous sentence sums it up.  

I am not too worried - I have already planned or bought most of my Christmas gifts, and for those I haven't figured yet, well, I wasn't planning on a gift card to one of those stores.  If I for some reason receive a gift card to one of those joints, I will simply shop before January 1.  (Maybe I AM paranoid.)

I could always 'snopes' this and see if there's truth to it.  Hmm.  Anyone have any knowledge on this subject?