PLANO, Texas — The Plano Police Forgery Unit, in collaboration with the Secret Service and ICE, say they have arrested two people in connection with a gift card draining scheme after seizing more than 4,100 tampered gift cards.
Removing these tampered gift cards, ranging from Apple to Sephora, Amazon and Footlocker, saved customers more than $649,000 in possibly scammed funds, police say.
Gift card draining, police say, is when scammers drain gift cards before they are used by their owner -- which is done by going into stores and stealing gift card numbers and PIN codes. They are unsealed then resealed and placed back on the shelf so they look like they haven't been tampered with.
Two people have already been arrested in the investigation, Xiaohong Zhang and Ziongling Chen, and police say more arrests are expected.
Police advise consumers to inspect gift cards prior to buying them and to notify staff if anything out of the ordinary appears. The receipt should also be kept as proof of purchase, officials say.
Anyone who becomes a victim of gift card draining is advised to contact the retailer or funds provider to report the incident and file a report with the law enforcement agency where the card was bought and also with the Federal Trade Commission.
