Three Arrested In Gift Card Fraud Case

Date Added: January 31, 2017 11:05 am

Lt. Jason Sampsell
386-775-5482 office
386-804-8434 cell

THREE ARRESTED IN GIFT CARD FRAUD CASE

On 01/30/2017, Orange City Police Department arrested Oshane Nelson, 23 years old of DeLand, Richard Lucas, 28 years old of Orlando, and William Hargett, 48 years old of Kissimmee, on felony charges of: Organized Scheme to Defraud over $20,000 and Grand Theft over $20,000.

Orange City Police Dept, in conjunction with Wal-Mart Loss Prevention Officers, conducted an investigation after loss prevention officers discovered multiple gift cards were being purchased with stolen and/or fraudulent credit cards. During the month of January 2017, Lucas and Hargett purchased several gift cards from the Orange City Wal-Mart by charging and loading $500.00 on each gift card purchased using numerous fraudulent credit cards. Nelson, a Wal-Mart employee, would manually enter the credit card number information into the Wal-Mart cash register system as the normal magnetic strip and/or chip would not work as they were fraudulent. In exchange for his involvement aiding Lucas and Hargett with these fraudulent entries, Nelson would receive several $500.00 gift cards for himself as payment. After subsequently receiving the fraudulently obtained $500 gift cards, the subjects would wire themselves the money via an outside vendor in the value of the gift cards using a false name.

Based on the crime analysis of the investigation, detectives from the Orange City Police Department conducted surveillance of the Orange City Wal-Mart on 01/30/17. At approximately 2100 hours on said date, Lucas and Hargett arrived and completed additional fraudulent transactions via Nelson’s check-out line. All three suspects were subsequently taken into custody and arrested without incident by Lt. Jason  Sampsell and Detective Ken Jones.

All three suspects were processed at the Orange City Police Department and subsequently transported to the Volusia County Branch Jail with a bond of $7,500 each on the aforementioned charges. Anyone with additional information on his case is asked to contact Orange City Police Detective Ken Jones at (386) 775-5478.