2 arrested, charged in connection with gift card scheme in Bucks County
Jian He and Min He were picked up in West Goshen after officers recognized their license plates from incidents in Plumstead.
PLUMSTEAD TWP., Pennsylvania (WPVI) -- It's a time of year when gift cards are in high demand.
Detectives in Bucks County say two men were running a scheme to steal crucial information from the backs of gift cards to pull the funds from them.
Police say employees at a Giant in Plumstead Township called them after discovering some gift cards had been tampered with.
"They opened them up, looked in the package, saw there was an inordinate amount of glue on there, thought they were suspicious. So they immediately pulled all the gift cards off the rack," said Det. Kevin Larkin of Plumstead Township Police.
Police say two suspects placed about 75 Visa gift cards on the shelves there on November 28, having already skimmed information from the gift cards. Police say if the gift cards had been purchased and activated, the funds would've been stolen.
"Unfortunately when a customer comes and they go to get a gift card, they have no idea the gift card has already been opened and the information has been retrieved off of it," said Larkin.
Police were able to pull surveillance video of the suspects and their car.
On December 2, Jian He and Min He were picked up in West Goshen after officers recognized their license plates from incidents in Plumstead.
Police say they had dozens of Nike gift cards in their possession.
While police say in this case employees pulled the fraudulent gift cards before anyone purchased them, they want shoppers to be aware.
"It's very profitable for them. I think there's 75 cards that were put on our rack and the minimum they would've gotten out of them would've been $3,100," said Larkin.
The suspects are being held on $50,000 cash bail in Bucks County on the charges out of Plumstead Township.
The suspects are facing similar charges from several other departments in Bucks County.
Police want consumers to be careful when buying gift cards.
If it looks like the cardboard packaging has been opened and re-glued, or if it looks like the mag stripe has been swiped already, you'll want to alert employees.
