A Chinese national pleaded guilty to gift card fraud in Florida.
United States Attorney Roger Handberg recently announced that 32-year-old Donghui Liao, of China, pleaded guilty to possession of 15 or more unauthorized access devices (gift cards).
According to the plea agreement, a large-scale retail store has been the victim of an ongoing organized gift card fraud scheme. The structure of the scheme involved individuals stealing gift cards from the store, obtaining the account information from the back of the cards, resealing the cards in their original packaging, and placing the gift cards back onto the shelves of a different store location for customers to purchase.
Once a customer purchased the gift card and loaded a monetary amount onto it, the fraudsters had access to the funds without the customer’s knowledge.
On October 17, 2023, an officer with the Ocala Police Department observed Liao retrieving numerous gift cards from a black shoulder bag he was wearing and placing those gift cards on the retailer’s gift card display. Liao was also observed taking gift cards off the shelves and concealing them inside his bag before leaving the store.
Seventy-one of the gift cards that Liao had placed on the shelves showed signs of alteration and forgery. A search of Liao’s vehicle revealed 6,032 additional stolen gift cards. The combined value of the gift cards in Liao’s vehicle, if purchased and activated by customers, would have been $1.886 million.
Store surveillance identified Liao performing this same scheme on multiple occasions at different stores in Ohio, Georgia, North Carolina, and Florida.
This case was investigated by the Ocala Police Department and Homeland Security Investigations. It is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Sarah Janette Swartzberg. Liao faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in federal prison.
