An Apple Store employee in New York has been charged with fraudulently purchasing $997,000 worth of Apple Gift Cards using recoded credit and debit cards. The employee was caught as a result of an internal investigation which began earlier this month. The investigation was initiated when Apple began to receive charge-backs on the fraudulent gift cards.
According to NBC Channel 4 News, Ruben Profit conducted his illegal operation out of Apple’s Queens Center Mall location, where he would use Visa and American Express gift, debit and pre-paid credit cards to load up multiple Apple gift cards and sell them to an unidentified third party at heavily discounted rates. Profit has been an Apple retail employee since December 2013.
Profit told authorities that he would receive $200 for each $2,000 Apple gift card. At the time of his arrest, Profit is reported to have had 51 Visa and American Express gift cards in his possession that had been re-encoded with credit card information, as well as seven Apple gift cards worth $2,000 each.
The scofflaw faces up to 15 years behind bars if he is convicted. He was arraigned Friday and is currently being held on $20,000 bail.
