Two Chinese nationals have been arrested for allegedly running sophisticated gift card fraud

Ventura County detectives from the Regional Retail Theft Task Force arrested two suspected Chinese nationals for allegedly running a sophisticated gift card scam.

The Ventura County Sheriff’s Office said officers arrested the two men during a “blitz” operation in Moorpark last Friday. A “blitz” operation pairs undercover agents and uniformed officers with store damage prevention officers to arrest shoplifters and dismantle organized crime gangs.

The task force was conducting surveillance at a large retail store in the 800 block of New Los Angeles Avenue when company security alerted them to two men stealing numerous gift cards from a shelf and stuffing them into a bag. Officers arrested the two men shortly after they left the store.

Investigators said they arrested 39-year-old Tingxiang Yang and 35-year-old Lingyu Chen with about 800 gift cards that were allegedly stolen from the Moorpark store and other retail stores. Investigators linked the thefts to an organized theft tactic called “card draining.” In these scams, thieves steal gift cards from stores, open them, capture card numbers and PINs, or replace the barcodes.

They then return to the branches with the newly packaged cards and put them back on the shelves. When a customer purchases the card and loads money, the suspects access and debit the account.

Yang and Chen were arrested on charges of conspiracy to commit organized retail theft and booked into a Ventura prison. They have posted bond and are scheduled to appear in Ventura County Superior Court on May 24.