Apple Gift Card Scheme
Todd Bookman (via Roman Loyola):
Then, according to Carter, the cards are carefully placed back in their original packaging, and are returned to the store’s shelves, where an unsuspecting customer will hopefully purchase them and add money to the card.
[…]
The scale of the scheme is mind-boggling: Apple, working with police, determined that the company shipped 46,364 products to a single warehouse in Windham, New Hampshire during a 10-week window last summer, with a total value of $47 million. That works out to an average of $600,000 a day in Apple products to a single location. A separate facility in Amherst received another $35 million in iPhones over the same period.
[…]
Chinese nationals are working and, in some cases, living inside these rented warehouses. There, workers receive the new Apple products from UPS or FedEx, sometimes thousands a day. They unbox the products, then consolidate all of the electronics into larger, anonymous brown boxes.
[…]
Once the electronics are repackaged into unmarked boxes, the warehouse workers go to UPS or FedEx to ship them to their next destination. Often, that’s to an international exporter based in Florida. From there, it’s on to China, Dubai, or South America, where the iPhones and other devices are resold for profit.
I don’t think I’ve seen anything yet about electronic gift cards not being safe.
Previously:
Update (2026-05-20): Adam Engst:
My recommendation stands: avoid physical gift cards entirely, and if you must use one, redeem it at an Apple Store for physical merchandise rather than adding the balance to your Apple Account.
Update (2026-05-22): Jason Anthony Guy:
I’m infuriated by the apparent institutional failure exposed by the purchases of Apple products[…] Shipping 46,000 products to a single location didn’t raise any suspicions inside Apple? Is there a legitimate business out there that’s buying $47 million of Apple products over a ten-week period, at retail prices, without anyone at Apple even raising an eyebrow? At that volume, I would at least expect a business manager to reach out to establish a relationship. How did this not raise flags?
[…]
I’m sure Apple has data showing the average number of gift cards used in any transaction, the value of those purchases, whether they’re from new or repeat customers, where the products are shipped, and a vast multitude of additional datapoints that could have flagged these purchases. I really hope that, in the year since this scheme was revealed, Apple has implemented meaningful measures that will help prevent another deadly scam.
