{"id":51942,"date":"2026-05-18T13:51:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-18T17:51:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/?p=51942"},"modified":"2026-05-18T13:51:00","modified_gmt":"2026-05-18T17:51:00","slug":"apple-gift-card-scheme","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2026\/05\/18\/apple-gift-card-scheme\/","title":{"rendered":"Apple Gift Card Scheme"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nhpr.org\/nh-news\/2026-05-14\/derry-murder-is-the-latest-fallout-from-nhs-ties-to-global-gift-card-scam\">Todd Bookman<\/a> (via <a href=\"https:\/\/www.macworld.com\/article\/3141015\/this-wild-story-will-make-you-think-twice-about-buying-apple-gift-cards.html\">Roman Loyola<\/a>):<\/p>\n<blockquote cite=\"https:\/\/www.nhpr.org\/nh-news\/2026-05-14\/derry-murder-is-the-latest-fallout-from-nhs-ties-to-global-gift-card-scam\">\n<p>Then, according to Carter, the cards are carefully placed back in their original packaging, and are returned to the store&rsquo;s shelves, where an unsuspecting customer will hopefully purchase them and add money to the card.<\/p>\n<p>[&#8230;]<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>[&#8230;]<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>[&#8230;]<\/p>\n<p>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&rsquo;s to an international exporter based in Florida. From there, it&rsquo;s on to China, Dubai, or South America, where the iPhones and other devices are resold for profit.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n<p>I don&rsquo;t think I&rsquo;ve seen anything yet about electronic gift cards not being safe.<\/p>\n\n<p>Previously:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2025\/12\/13\/locked-out-of-apple-account-due-to-gift-card\/\">Locked Out of Apple Account Due to Gift Card<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>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&rsquo;s shelves, where an unsuspecting customer will hopefully purchase them and add money to the card. [&#8230;] The scale of the scheme is mind-boggling: Apple, working with police, determined that the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"apple_news_api_created_at":"2026-05-18T17:51:03Z","apple_news_api_id":"5d4c15d7-ab5a-4b1a-9245-3631a7032cb3","apple_news_api_modified_at":"2026-05-18T17:51:03Z","apple_news_api_revision":"AAAAAAAAAAD\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/w==","apple_news_api_share_url":"https:\/\/apple.news\/AXUwV16taSxqSRTYxpwMssw","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_is_hidden":false,"apple_news_is_paid":false,"apple_news_is_preview":false,"apple_news_is_sponsored":false,"apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":"\"\"","apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[38,707,2686,169,509],"class_list":["post-51942","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-technology","tag-apple","tag-apple-id","tag-law-enforcement","tag-payments","tag-shopping"],"apple_news_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51942","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51942"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51942\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51943,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51942\/revisions\/51943"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51942"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51942"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51942"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}