That is pennies for the kind of information they have (assuming they have it). It's also not smart to ask for gift cards because they can easily associate it with personal apple ids of the hackers. Seems like an amateur job.
Yup, gift cards only work when you are still under the radar. Once they know the connection, the anonyminity advantage is mostly lost.
Edit: assuming they don't have access to the gift card system of choice.
Without a sample list of email addresses, it's a bluff. That "womans iCloud account" is probably someone they know.