Project Red Hook is a Homeland Security Investigations operation examining how Chinese Organized Crime is committing wholesale Gift Card Fraud by using Chinese illegal immigrants to steal gift cards, reveal their PIN, reseal the cards, and return them to store racks. When the card is later purchased and activated, operators are standing by to quickly drain the card before the customer can use it. How many cards are we talking about? More than $1 Billion worth!
Here are a few cases of interest to me – especially the first one!
Birmingham, Alabama
https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndal/pr/chinese-nationals-charged-illegally-possessing-counterfeit-and-unauthorized-gift-cards
25JUN2025 – the Hoover Alabama Police Department put out a BOLO for two Asian males in a gray Lexus SUV with California tag DE53Y62 who were switching gift cards in racks at local CVS stores. Jiadong Cao, 36, and Xuejun Zheng, 48, were stopped and arrested the following day in Pelham, Alabama and found to possess more than 5,000 gift cards. Portions of the gift card numbers had been destroyed on the cards, which would allow the cards to be activated at the register, but not used by the customer who purchased them. 300 altered cards for Home Depot, Amazon, Sephora, Macy’s and Nike were found in their car. Home Depot reviewed their cards and confirmed they had not been sold.
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