Police Warn Christmas Shoppers About Widespread Gift Card Scam

Officials across the United States have warned about new gift card scam called "card draining" as some holiday shoppers opt to purchase them as Christmas gifts.

In California, a man was arrested for tampering with Target gift cards at a store in Sacramento last week, according to a news release from the Sacramento County Sheriff's Office. Police said that Ningning Sun was found with more than 5,000 gift cards in his possession.

“During our recent retail theft Operation Bad Elf, detectives observed an individual, later identified as Ningning Sun, acting suspiciously near the gift cards in the payment aisles in a Sacramento Target store,” the sheriff’s office wrote, adding: "Detectives observed him placing all the gift cards on a rack inside his jacket, then replacing the gift cards with another set of seemingly identical ones."

The investigation revealed he was part of a scam operation that spanned across multiple states, the sheriff's office said. An "investigation revealed Sun was part of a scam that tampered with gift cards, scanned the bar code, and stole money from the gift card as money was loaded on them," the office said.

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