GILBERT, Ariz. — A man was recently arrested at a grocery store in Gilbert after police allegedly found over 2,000 gift cards in his possession.
Court records show Chuandao Yu, 44, was arrested on May 9 after a manager at the Fry's store near Higley and Pecos roads noticed a non-employee restocking the store's gift card shelves.
Gilbert police officers responded and found the suspect in a vehicle with a box full of gift cards. Officers later counted over 2,000 cards for various retailers, records show.
Surveillance footage allegedly captured the suspect placing up to 65 tampered gift cards on the store's shelves. Some of these altered cards had the sticker covering up the card number removed and replaced, records show.
A common scam observed in retail stores involves "cloning" gift cards that scammers can use to steal money from unsuspecting customers.
Back in December, the Arizona Attorney General's Office announced the seizure of thousands of cloned gift cards following a statewide investigation into retail fraud. Officials have said that if a card has faint scratches or stickers placed over activation codes, then those may be signs that the card has been cloned.
Court records show Yu is allegedly the subject of an ongoing fraud investigation involving tampered or cloned gift cards. The California resident has been booked into jail and is facing criminal charges of forgery.
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