HENDERSONVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — The Hendersonville Police Department recently put an end to a gift card scam that, according to them, was likely done across several states.
According to HPD, officers were notified of possible gift card tampering by someone inside a Publix on Monday.
“He just went to the gift card rack and put some gift cards back on the rack, and then he left. He was in there less than a minute, and so the manager thought that was suspicious,” explained Jimmy Garret, HPD Commander.
Using License Plate Readers (LPRs), the suspect — identified as 43-year-old Lin Jiang — was tracked down later the same day in Spring Hill.
Commander Garett told News 2 he had over 700 gift cards in his possession, along with tools needed to manipulate gift cards. Authorities said they don’t believe Jiang was working alone. In fact, they know that these specific scammers have been working across the country.
“This crew started in California and we were able to track them through LPR, and they went to Washington, down through Kansas, to Missouri, into Tennessee,” said Garrett. “They scratch off… the pin number, and then whenever you load that card up, you don’t have the pin number, you can’t use it. But it loads up their information and they're able to get into the gift card and use it.”
Going into the peak shopping months, Commander Garrett shared some advice for people who may visit the gift card racks in the weeks ahead.
“Just don’t grab it and run out to the rack and go pay for it; take a minute to look at it and see if it looks altered,” Garrett explained. “You can tell the stickers aren’t always put on correctly, and you can tell, sometimes, when the packages have been cut and re-glued.”
Hendersonville police charged Jiang with 10 counts of “criminal simulation,” with more charges expected.
Potential accomplices and other incident locations are still being investigated, according to HPD.
