South Florida

New Theft Scheme Turns Gift Cards Into Credit Cards With Stolen Information

Police say you now have another thing worry about when it comes to fraud: your hard earned money going into gift cards you never bought.

It's the latest move by those out to make a move on your bank and credit card accounts without you knowing about it until it's too late.

Police said Wayne Jean Louis used a fraudulent gift card inside a Broward County Walmart store, along with Sandro Flores. El Portal Police said he was also inside a central Broward Walmart using gift cards he had no business with.

Blending in with other shoppers, officers exclusively told NBC 6 the two had a clever scheme to turn blank gift cards into ones they could use in the checkout line.

"I did an investigation and found through my card reader that the cards had been re-encoded with account numbers from other banks that did not match the account numbers on the face of the cards," said David Adlet with El Portal Police.

It was in peaceful El Portal, fortunately more known for its bird sanctuary than clever identity theft schemes, where a traffic stop opened the door to this. A pile of gift cards of several types was in a book bag in the vehicle.

"Pretty scary when 18-year-olds are already doing this type of crime," Adlet said.

El Portal's lone investigator, Det. Adlet, uncovered an interesting find. He discovered how gift cards could be stolen, then with the stolen credit card or debit card numbers of real customers, the gift cards could be matched with those numbers, then the fraudulent gift cards used in stores.

Jean Louis and Flores, both 18, have been charged with ID theft and fraud.

"I imagine if you extrapolate that throughout Dade County, South Florida and throughout the United States, it's widespread into the millions and millions of dollars of fraud," Adlet explained.

The two men charged have entered not guilty pleas. The natural worry is that you have these two teens allegedly up to this and chances are they didn't devise this scheme.

Always keep an eye on your accounts. The Village of El Portal has put out a list of tips for its residents but police believe it's good advice for all of us. To view the list, click here.

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