Man arrested after being found with 2,000 gift cards at Gilbert store

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 May 9 after a manager at the Fry’s store near Higley and Pecos streets noticed a non-employee stocking the store’s gift card shelves.

Gilbert police officers responded and found the suspect in a vehicle with a box full of gift cards. Officials later counted more than 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. On some of those altered cards, the sticker that covered the card number was removed and replaced, records show.

A common scam seen in retail stores involves “cloning” gift cards, which fraudsters 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 nationwide investigation into retail fraud. Officials said if a card has faint scratches or stickers over activation codes, these could be signs that the card has been cloned.

Court documents indicate that Yu is allegedly the subject of an ongoing fraud investigation involving doctored or cloned gift cards. The California resident was sent to prison and is charged with forgery.

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