Two from New York accused of Massachusetts gift card scam ring, 4,617 cards seized

Officers in Massachusetts have arrested two from New York in what they say is a gift card scam ring.

According to police, on Tuesday, Officers were alerted that two Asian females were removing gift cards from the display rack at CVS on Grove Street in Braintree.

Officers located the suspect vehicle and eventually discovered 4 bags full of Apple, Nike, Sephora and Visa gift cards. In total they recovered 4,617 cards.

YanYan Liu and Na Dong, of Flushing NY, were placed under arrest and charged with shoplifting and receiving stolen property.

Police stated that the scam, which is currently happening across the United States, involve criminals removing thousands of gift cards from display racks and then logging the gift card numbers, bar codes and corresponding PIN’s that are located under a security sticker.

The next phase involves repackaging the cards and placing these tampered gift cards back on the display shelfs in stores. When an unsuspecting customer selects the compromised gift card and loads it with funds at the register, criminals are regularly running these cards and PIN #’s through a database looking to spend the funds presumably online before the gift recipient does.

Oftentimes people will go to use their gift card, only to find out that most of the funds paid onto it have already been spent.