Examples of Gift Card FraudIf It Happened to Them, It Can Happen to You, Too
Three Real-World Case Studies in Gift Card Fraud
It’s easy to think of gift card fraud as an abstract threat…until it hits home. Major retailers and small eCommerce merchants alike have lost millions of dollars to both rogue actors and sophisticated fraud rings.
Your business is not exempt from this threat.
In this article, we share some real-world case studies of gift card scams, breaking down how the scam happened, who was targeted, who was involved, and how much was lost.
Seven Men Arrested in Lowe’s and Home Depot Gift Card Scam
Seven Long Island perpetrators were arrested in March 2025 following a 15-month investigation into a scheme that Nassau County District Attorney Anne T. Donnelly called “one of the largest money laundering cases [her] office has prosecuted.”
The group of scammers blackmailed elderly victims into purchasing Lowe’s and Home Depot gift cards by installing malware onto victims’ computers or by sending text messages alleging the victims’ personally identifying information had been compromised.
The fraud ring, led by Sky Cunhang Lin, 36, then purchased more than $3 million worth of inventory, including “copper pipes, steel cables and hot water heaters” from Lowe’s and Home Depot stores across Nassau County in New York.
Police also discovered that the scammers had accumulated “$650,000 worth of merchandise, along with $100,000 cash, high-end jewelry and handbags” shashed in a dozen trucks.
Each of the men were charged with conspiracy and money laundering; charges that carry penalties of up to 15 years behind bars.
Foreign National Steals Gift Cards Worth $1.9 Million
In December 2024, 32 year-old Donghui Liao, a foreign national from China, pleaded guilty to a $1.9 million gift card scam involving more than 6,100 individual cards.
To commit the fraud, Liao would steal unactivated gift cards from retailers across several states, including Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, and Ohio. He would then open the packaging and make a note of the card number and PIN combination.
Afterwards, he would reseal the packaging. To avoid detection, he would relocate the tampered cards to the shelves of a different store.
Unaware of Liao’s actions, victims would then purchase the cards. Upon checkout, the tampered gift cards would be activated with a balance. Liao would then immediately spend the balance without the knowledge or consent of the legitimate buyer.
Liao was apprehended by the Ocala Police Department and agents from Homeland Security Investigations (HSI). He’s currently facing up to 10 years in prison.
Man Convicted in $22 Million Illicit Gift Card Marketplace Scheme
In April 2022, 41 year-old Richard Verret, a foreign national from Quebec, Canada, was arrested at Orlando International Airport after authorities identified him as the mastermind behind a network of illegal websites that sold stolen gift cards to buyers at deeply discounted prices.
One such website, “miami.gift,” now seized by Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and the Department of Justice (DOJ), listed more than half a million gift cards worth $22 million, all personally stolen by Verret. These stolen gift cards were associated with more than 500 different businesses, most of them located in Louisiana.
After his arrest in Florida, he was extradited to the Middle District of Louisiana. Verret admitted to operating these illicit sites between 2018 and 2022, and pleaded guilty to charges involving the “unauthorized solicitation of access devices” in September 2022.
Following his conviction, Chief Judge Shelly D. Dick sentenced Verret to 57 months in federal prison and ordered him to “forfeit more than $810,000 in proceeds from his crime.”
