Gift Card-Cloning Thief Scams Best Buy and Apple
An Oregon man has been arrested for scamming thousands of dollars out of Best Buy, Apple and a number of other stores in a gift card cloning scheme.
Sealtiel Chacon Zepeda, a 22-year-old Beaverton, Oregon, resident, has pleaded guilty to five counts of computer crime after he successfully scammed stores out of $6,000 by cloning gift cards. Zepeda cloned the cards using software he found online, and a magnetic card reader that was able to rewrite the card's information. After stealing blank gift cards from store displays, Zepeda would go home, scan the card and return it. A computer program would notify him when it had been purchased by a shopper, and activated. Zepeda would then rewrite that card's information to another blank card and use it as normal. The 22-year-old ran the racket at Abercrombie & Fitch, American Eagle, Apple, Best Buy, Fred Meyer Macy's and Spencer Gifts.
Fred Meyer was the first to catch on to the deal when they started receiving a number of complaints from customers who said their just-purchased gift cards had a balance of zero. They passed the inquiry onto their fraud investigators who noticed that the balance of the gift cards in question was being checked hundreds of times per day. The activity set off alarm bells as most people only check the balance of a store gift card once or twice before maxing it out.
Mr. Zepeda was identified by his computers IP address and store CCTV cameras. He was caught using a cloned card in Fred Meyer and confessed the details of his crime. Authorities found more than 1,000 gift cards in Zepeda's home. Police Detective Michael Hanada said the Beaverton man's technique was one he'd rarely seen before, and hasn't been seen since Zepeda used it in early 2009.
"This is the first time I've ever seen it," Hanada said. "This was really unique."
According to OregonLive, Zepeda was sentenced to 18 months of formal probation for his hustling and a simultaneous drunk driving conviction. If he violates probation, he will serve 13 months in prison.
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lol isn't spencer's a sex toy store?
No eklipz330...
On topic though, should of used a proxy dope.
lol isn't spencer's a sex toy store?
Not really. They just have really erotic gifts.
Spencers is where I got a bike chain for my wallet. Was sweet.
What kind of an idiot uses his own internet service to commit such big time fraud? A free access point connection would have been much smarter. Most credit card fraud can always be busted using CCTV cameras. Its just that most stores do not feel its worth the effort connecting the video feed to the time-stamp on the transaction and consider it the cost of doing business. Obviously if you piss a store off like this they will then decide to put in the effort.
Believe it or not, in most states an individual can get a court order (after some considerable paper work, and putting up with much run-around by the store's legal department) to force the store to hand over CCTV tapes and transaction records if he really want to go after the guy who stole his card.
IP address? All that planning...and that is what caught him up. Wow.
@eklipz330:
No it is not. They sell various random dorky things like gag gifts etc.
You'll notice that most criminals are complete dip-shit morons, because... well... there's just so many legally legit ways to screw people out of their money, and line your pockets with green.
Interesting scam. I wonder how many of the people who complained about losing the balance on their cards actually got their money back? It must have been frustrating to be one of the first handful of people to complain that your money mysteriously vanished, even though the store had a record of someone using it to make a purchase of hemorrhoid cream and ho-hos.
"Mr. Zepeda was identified by his computers IP address"
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You'll notice that most criminals are complete dip-shit morons, because... well... there's just so many legally legit ways to screw people out of their money, and line your pockets with green.
So many legegally legit ways to screw people out of their money.
You mean like what Steve jobs has been doing for decades?
You'll notice that most criminals are complete dip-shit morons, because... well... there's just so many legally legit ways to screw people out of their money, and line your pockets with green.
Exactly! Just run for public office. it's that simple
dunno, sounds like a hell of a lot of work for $6 grand? n now jail time.
@jomofro39:
same thing happened to Al capone. put in jail for tax evasion
dunno, sounds like a hell of a lot of work for $6 grand? n now jail time.
READ! He successfully scammed stores out of $6,000 and NO Jail Time.
According to OregonLive, Zepeda was sentenced to 18 months of formal probation for his hustling and a simultaneous drunk driving conviction. If he violates probation, he will serve 13 months in prison.
AND HE WAS DRUNK???? Thats whats wrong the Ba$tard stole 6 grand and was driving drunk and no jail time AAAHAHAHAAH My Brain Hurts!
He knew what he was doing was wrong, but chose to do it anyway. Stick his head in a bucket and pull the trigger. GAME OVER.
His IP Address? Really? That's like robbing a bank and leaving a nicely folded shirt with some hair, semen, and blood samples all in little labeled rubbermaid containers.Oh, and a yellow sticky-note revealing the robbers general location.
He knew what he was doing was wrong, but chose to do it anyway. Stick his head in a bucket and pull the trigger. GAME OVER.
I didn't know the Taliban serve justice around here.
All that work and he only got $6K? Should've taken some cues from the crew that cut a hole in the roof of a BestBuy over where they store the MacBooks and stole like 20 of them. Couple hours of work, $40K+...not a bad haul.
If you wanna steal, steal big.
i bet there will be mroe of it happening now people know how to do it
it dosnt take someone with a lot of brains to google something
This guy steals $6000 worth of cash (store money anyway) and gets 19 months probation. Yet, a person that gets caught sharing a few copied songs on their computer gets slammed with over $1M in fines. Something is REALLY messed up with the justice system here !
This guy steals $6000 worth of cash (store money anyway) and gets 19 months probation. Yet, a person that gets caught sharing a few copied songs on their computer gets slammed with over $1M in fines. Something is REALLY messed up with the justice system here !
The difference here is that those fines for illegal downloads are a civil matter. This guy could still be sued by each and every victim, including the people who bought the gift cards and the stores. He should have received a larger punishment than he did but he will likely still have more to pay back.
I call Apple getting scammed Karma.
Seriously, the only thieves there are the one selling you gift cards... it's nothing more than a disguised contract forcing you to buy something at XXX store before the expiring date.
If only they were giving you 10% off their merchandise...
I didn't know the Taliban serve justice around here.
The Taliban kills people for rejecting their irrational restrictions. This guy willfully violated the rights of others, repeatedly. Put him down like an animal; humanely but swiftly, so as not to waste too much time and resources. Too harsh? Then don't violate people's rights.
If you wanna steal, steal big.
i know right ! 6000 even 60000 whats that worth your entire life for ??
should at least be 600000 although you wouldn't live like a king
you could pull off a life with it when you got caught providing you are not tarded like
this guy nice idea but piss poor planning
Seriously?!?! probation? that's all you get for stealing,fraud,and drunk driving these days?And a program that he downloaded from the internet?So how many others are doing this or have done this and some stores have shrugged of people claiming they didn't use their gift cards...
thios is whats wrong with teh world today ..
this guy robs a bunch of stores , and gets no jaul time , yet a friend of mine went to prison for 5years forbassically bieng a victim .. basiclaly he was at a firend's hosue ,they asked him to give this guy a ride to buy some booze ( some one he didnt know at all). well durring the trip they come up on a police road block , at this point the guy whips a gun out and points it at my buddy'shead and tells him to drive through it , so anturally my firend does , not wanting to get his head blown off.well long story short they bust my frind along side the criminal , and my friend got 5 years in prison ... point being our leagal system is majorly broke
thios is whats wrong with teh world today ..this guy robs a bunch of stores , and gets no jaul time , yet a friend of mine went to prison for 5years forbassically bieng a victim .. basiclaly he was at a firend's hosue ,they asked him to give this guy a ride to buy some booze ( some one he didnt know at all). well durring the trip they come up on a police road block , at this point the guy whips a gun out and points it at my buddy'shead and tells him to drive through it , so anturally my firend does , not wanting to get his head blown off.well long story short they bust my frind along side the criminal , and my friend got 5 years in prison ... point being our leagal system is majorly broke
seriously learn to spell...?
Pretty simple if you ask me! Damn con artists!
I should not have tossed those old used gift cards in the trash because I could now say it was not me who spent all that money.