Apple Store employee accused of stealing nearly $1M in gift cards

Posted:
in General Discussion edited October 2015
As the result of an internal investigation, Apple Store employee in New York was arrested and charged with a number of crimes, including grand larceny, for purchasing $997,000 worth of gift cards using recoded credit and debit cards.


Queens Center Mall Apple Store.


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.

Apple caught wind of the scheme when it began to receive charge-backs on the fraudulent gift cards being circulated by Profit. An investigation started sometime in October.

The fraudster told authorities he would be compensated $200 for each $2,000 Apple gift card. When he was arrested, Profit reportedly had seven Apple gift cards worth $2,000 each in his possession, as well as 51 Visa and American Express gift cards that were re-encoded with credit card information.

It is not entirely clear where Profit obtained the valid credit card information to be encoded onto surrogate cards, but similar gambits in the U.S. have used stolen data posted to the so-called "Dark Web." Recoding magnetic swipe cards with information from another account is a form of fraud.

If convicted, Profit could face up to 15 years behind bars, the report said.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 24
    tzeshantzeshan Posts: 2,351member
    I think when the nation is reaching full employment, the quality of new hires lowers correspondingly.
  • Reply 2 of 24
    sflocalsflocal Posts: 6,090member
    and btw... Happy Birthday Ruben...

    https://www.facebook.com/ModiOperandi
  • Reply 3 of 24
    Of course the guy's last name is Profit...haha
  • Reply 4 of 24
    sflocalsflocal Posts: 6,090member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Freshmaker View Post



    Of course the guy's last name is Profit...haha



    Funny thing is he was supposedly in college majoring in criminal justice.



    Ironic.

  • Reply 5 of 24
    bobschlobbobschlob Posts: 1,074member

    Boooo. Hissssss.  :devil: 

    Always one bad apple in the Apple.

  • Reply 6 of 24
    solipsismysolipsismy Posts: 5,099member
    So he steals $997,000, minus the 7 × $2000 he still had on him, multiplied by 10% means he only profited by $98,300. What a waste to his life and career for less than $100k. He can't even afford a great lawyer with that money.

    sflocal wrote: »
    and btw... Happy Birthday Ruben...

    https://www.facebook.com/ModiOperandi
    sflocal wrote: »
    Funny thing is he was supposedly in college majoring in criminal justice.

    Ironic.

    That explains the FaceBook link name he has chosen.
  • Reply 7 of 24
    mac_dogmac_dog Posts: 1,066member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by sflocal View Post


    Funny thing is he was supposedly in college majoring in criminal justice.

    Ironic.

     

    i'd say he's well on his way to a successful career as a washington d.c. politician. if they won't take him, there's more than ample opportunity here in sf.
  • Reply 8 of 24
    red oakred oak Posts: 1,084member
    Queens. Does not surprise me at all it happened in this pit hole
  • Reply 9 of 24
    lmgslmgs Posts: 63member
    "I think when the nation is reaching full employment, the quality of new hires lowers correspondingly."

    Right.............. 92 million out of work... Lowest point in 35 years...


    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2537585/More-Americans-not-working-92-million-people-workforce.html
  • Reply 10 of 24
    Originally Posted by tzeshan View Post

    I think when the nation is reaching full employment, the quality of new hires lowers correspondingly.



    And with the nation at nearly 30% unemployment right now, I shudder to think what this would look like at near full employment.

     

    Originally Posted by SolipsismY View Post

    What a waste to his life and career for less than $100k. He can't even afford a great lawyer with that money.

     

    Exactly! If you’re going to knock something over, it should be at least enough to retire on.

     

    “What’s the target?”

    “Eight figures each.”

    What’s the target?”

    *does the power symbol with his hands*

    “You want to knock over an Apple Store.”

    *shakes head, makes roughly the OK sign*

    “You want to knock over... Infinite Loop.”

     

    Samsung’s 11

    Opening December 15, 2015

  • Reply 11 of 24
    tenlytenly Posts: 710member
    mac_dog wrote: »
    <div class="quote-container" data-huddler-embed="/t/189643/apple-store-employee-accused-of-stealing-nearly-1m-in-gift-cards#post_2793734" data-huddler-embed-placeholder="false"><span>Quote:</span><div class="quote-block">Originally Posted by <strong>sflocal</strong> <a href="/t/189643/apple-store-employee-accused-of-stealing-nearly-1m-in-gift-cards#post_2793734"><img src="/img/forum/go_quote.gif" class="inlineimg" alt="View Post"/></a><br/><br/><p><br>Funny thing is he was supposedly in college majoring in criminal justice.<br><br>Ironic.</p></div></div><p> </p>i'd say he's well on his way to a successful career as a washington d.c. politician. if they won't take him, there's more than ample opportunity here in sf.

    He already seems fully qualified to run a sapphire manufacturing facility!
  • Reply 12 of 24
    mike1mike1 Posts: 3,273member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by LMGS View Post



    "I think when the nation is reaching full employment, the quality of new hires lowers correspondingly."



    Right.............. 92 million out of work... Lowest point in 35 years...





    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2537585/More-Americans-not-working-92-million-people-workforce.html



    Did you even read the article you link? A clear case of manipulating numbers. 92 million out of work includes the retired, the infirm, students, those choosing not to work for whatever reason in addition to the true unemployed.

  • Reply 13 of 24
    mike1 wrote: »

    Did you even read the article you link? A clear case of manipulating numbers. 92 million out of work includes the retired, the infirm, students, those choosing not to work for whatever reason in addition to the true unemployed.

    Regardless of the actual number of people out of work, the point of the article is nicely summed up by this quote:

    "The bottom line: The economy is not creating positions for these people," said Robert Shapiro, chairman of the economic advisory firm Sonecon.

    'These people' refers to the 1.2 million people who had jobs before the recession and want, but do not have jobs now.

    Yes, the headline is shocking, but headlines are there to grab your attention and get you to read the article.
  • Reply 14 of 24
    apple ][apple ][ Posts: 9,233member

    That's a pretty new Apple store and it wasn't that many months ago that it opened.

     

    I went near the area on opening day, so I popped by to get a t-shirt, but they were all gone already by the time that I got there.

     

    That dude has a pretty funny name, especially for a sleaze bag criminal. Profit, lol.<img class=" src="http://forums-files.appleinsider.com/images/smilies//lol.gif" />

     

    Give him the max and put him behind bars for 15 years. Good riddance.

  • Reply 15 of 24
    I bet the guy he was selling them onto was making more money than this guy. What a chump.
  • Reply 16 of 24
    pichael wrote: »
    I bet the guy he was selling them onto was making more money than this guy. What a chump.

    So he wasn't the one who got the Profit. So he should get a new Name NonProfit.
  • Reply 17 of 24
    richlrichl Posts: 2,213member

    And with the nation at nearly 30% unemployment right now, I shudder to think what this would look like at near full employment.

    How many of those 92 million are looking for work and either live in New York or could afford to relocate to New York on for a retail wage?

    New York must be pretty close to full employment.
  • Reply 18 of 24
    Maybe his name should be Robin Profits?
  • Reply 19 of 24
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by tzeshan View Post

    I think when the nation is reaching full employment, the quality of new hires lowers correspondingly.

    Along with their language skills.

  • Reply 20 of 24
    zoetmbzoetmb Posts: 2,653member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by LMGS View Post



    "I think when the nation is reaching full employment, the quality of new hires lowers correspondingly."



    Right.............. 92 million out of work... Lowest point in 35 years...





    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2537585/More-Americans-not-working-92-million-people-workforce.html



    Total b.s.   You think 1/3 of the adult population is out of work?   There's only 318 million people in the population, including children.   Totally bogus.   If that were the case, the stock price of every company that sells products in America, especially products that aren't "must have" like basic food staples, would have crashed because their sales would be in the toilet.   And there'd be tons of people begging in the streets and overwhelming unemployment and welfare offices.    

     

    Where I live in a borough of NYC, the stores, restaurants, malls and roads are packed.   In fact, that Queens Mall cited in this article mainly attracts low- and middle-income customers from working class neighborhoods that surround it in Queens.   It's packed all the time.   I don't know if it's still the case (since it doubled in size some years ago), but at one time that mall was the highest grossing mall per square foot in the U.S.    Many of the local retail shops have "wanted" signs in their windows.   Definitely not high-paying jobs, but jobs. 

     

    Almost all the car manufacturers had a great month for auto sales.   The launch of the latest iPhone went really well.   Theaters that will be playing the new Star Wars film, especially the more-expensive IMAX theaters have basically sold out opening weekend.   Etc. 

     

    There are plenty of high-paying jobs around for people with the right skills.   Check out Apple's or Google's employment pages on their websites or look at the jobs listed on 'The Hired Guns'.   

     

    What is true is that there aren't jobs for those without good skills, except extremely low paying jobs in the service sector.  So ex-factory workers who haven't retrained or people without college degrees or someone with a college degree, but no particular special skills, are screwed unless they have the ability to be an entrepreneur, especially if they live outside of a large city with a healthy economy.     And there are a lot of homeless in some cities, but I would contend that the majority are either substance abusers and/or mentally disturbed. (There are certainly exceptions though).    What's also true is that many of our cities are becoming too expensive for anyone but the super-rich to afford, unless one already owns property.   

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