MONROE — Lynnwood Police last week made two arrests of associates with the Monroe woman accused of masterminding a gift card fraud scheme.
This time, they arrested the woman’s sister, 32, of Lynnwood and a 34-year-old male associate in the scheme. Both were arrested Aug. 21.
A detective’s report shows even more people than this were involved.
The 28-year-old woman’s scheme affected hundreds of victims by faking their digital gift card numbers to drain their account balances.
Police have probable cause that the 32-year-old sister was involved by making purchases on the gift card accounts.
Police say the 34-year-old man had used stolen gift cards to buy new, clean gift cards which he put up for sale for cash on Facebook Marketplace.
The gift card scheme worked like this: They’d guess sequences of card numbers, hope the gift card accounts are valid and have money, and then go shopping. They’d sit at a store and give the clerk dozens of digital gift card numbers that each get scanned off a barcode shown on a cell phone screen (similar to scanning the barcode on the Starbucks mobile-pay app, detectives wrote.)
Both the Monroe woman and her sister made purchases, detectives wrote in the Monroe woman’s case. Her sister would even have clerks scan her loyalty rewards accounts to give herself points from her illegal purchases, detectives wrote.
The Victoria's Secret and Victoria's Secret's PINK stores at the Alderwood Mall in Lynnwood were their go-to.
Police seek to charge the sister with four felonies: possession of stolen property, identity theft, possession of financial fraud instruments and organized retail theft.
She had her first court date Aug. 21 and posted a $7,500 bond. It is not clear what’s happened with the 34-year-old man since his arrest.
The detective wrote that Victoria’s Secret lost more than $96,000 because of the scheme. Victoria’s Secret would reimburse the actual cardholder if they complained of fraud.
The Monroe woman, 28, was arrested Aug. 5 at her apartment. Inside her apartment, police found a credit card-making machine and tools to make fake checks, nearly one pound of fentanyl pills and powder, thousands of $100 bills, plus stolen firearms, a detective’s report said.
She was seen in Everett District Court earlier this month, but her charges have been dismissed by court policy as prosecutors had not filed charges. It is not known if prosecutors will have the felony case be picked up into Snohomish County Superior Court.
The Tribune is not naming these suspects until they are arraigned.
Previous coverage:
Monroe woman ran complex gift card fraud scheme, police say (Aug. 14 Tribune)
