New York family charged with possession of $25M in fake goods
Police arrested three Floral Park, New York, men, a father and two sons, for possession of approximately $25 million worth of counterfeit designer accessories, according to the Nassau County Police Department. The merchandise was found at three locations, the men’s Willis Avenue home, their warehouse in New Hyde Park and an undisclosed rental property, according to a police spokeswoman.
Mahmood Nasir, 55, and his two sons, Ramish, 22 and Rubail, 18, were arrested on Tuesday at their Willis Avenue residence, according to police. The knock off goods were being shipped through John F. Kennedy International Airport, according to a police spokeswoman. The products included knockoffs of luxury designers including Rolex, Burberry, Hublot, Gucci, Prada and Louis Vuitton, according to police. The arrest comes after a six month long investigation into the importation of counterfeit accessories conducted by Nassau County detectives, Homeland Security Investigators and U.S. Custom Border Protection Officers. [Source: The Island Now]
Employee allegedly embezzles $199,000
An employee of a Arkansas company who allegedly embezzled more than $199,000 in company funds was arrested less than two hours after Hot Springs police posted his photo on social media. Randall Allen Morris, 51, who lists a Leach Street address, was taken into custody around 6:30 p.m. at the Garland County Library, 1427 Malvern Ave., after he was spotted by a security guard, who called police Morris was charged with theft of property more than $25,000, a felony punishable by up to 20 years in prison. According to the probable cause affidavit, on Nov. 3, police responded to Flossie’s, located at 226 Castleberry St., in reference to a theft and spoke to employees who stated they had logged onto the company’s PayPal account that day and discovered another employee, identified as Morris, had made numerous transactions from the company’s account into his own private PayPal account.
The transactions allegedly occurred several times each month from January to October 2017, ranging in amounts from $52 to more than $1,800. The employees noted none of the transactions were authorized. Detective Patrick Langley received documentation from Flossie’s corporate accounting firm, dated Dec. 7, which noted Morris had both diverted funds to himself and to unauthorized websites. They were reportedly able to determine Morris diverted $134,038 into his own account and $65,076.51 to the websites for his personal benefit. The total amount of funds diverted was $199,114.51, the affidavit states. Officers responded and took him into custody without incident, he said. [Source: The Sentinel-Record]
Police make more than 50 arrests in shoplifting blitz
Louisville Metro police, the Kentucky Organized Retail Crime Association and more than 15 retailers put together a joint task force to attack shoplifting at the Mall St. Matthews, Oxmoor Mall and Springhurst Shopping Center around this time each year. The three-day sting led to more than 50 arrests and more could come. Police said they found $12,000 worth of drugs on different suspects and even recovered one stolen car. The blitz targeted shoplifters at retailers including Walmart, Macy’s and Toys R Us. Store loss prevention associates patrolled aisles in plainclothes, looking for shoplifters. They texted police officers waiting outside, who intercepted the suspects as they left.
“We saw everything from a $200 nail gun from Lowe’s taken to people under-ringing beer at Kroger, where they would ring in the beer at the self checkout, but they wouldn’t ring in all the items. So, we just saw everything running the gamut. There is not one item, it’s kind of been amazing,” Louisville Metro police Maj. Jamey Schwab said. Shoppers said they’re impressed with the results. “I think it’s pretty incredible, actually,” shopper Chris Murphy said. “It makes it to where these stores … don’t have to lose any money.” Another shopper said he supports the police operation. “I think people … come up with sneakier ways to do the shoplifting,” shopper Keith Dorton said. “Then I think the police have to accommodate for that by coming up with sneakier ways to catch them.” The partners said the operation was so successful that they plan on doing it again. [Source: WLKY News]
Thief caught on camera stealing iPhones at a store [Viral Video]
A Fresno, California, business is hoping for help in tracking down a thief who walked away with thousands of dollars in merchandise this week. The showroom at TV Guyz is mostly filled with big electronics, like televisions and laptops — all discounted after someone returned them to bigger stores like Best Buy. They’ve started selling phones lately, and a customer three days ago seemed interested in buying almost the entire inventory. “We started negotiating about the prices. He kind of tried to lowball me,” said Edgar Sandoval. Sandoval had dealt with the man once before. He sold Sandoval a used phone a while back. But this time, he was going to buy four iPhones and some televisions. He got three phones, but he didn’t buy them. “As soon as I walked to the back, he saw my brother-in-law was just right here waiting for me, so he just grabbed the phones and took off running,” said Sandoval. The store’s surveillance camera shows exactly what Sandoval described. He says he knows it was a rookie move to even give the guy the opportunity to do this, but he’s never had it happen before and he wanted to trust a customer. “A lot of people we deal with are pretty nice people so most of the time I don’t really have to worry about somebody robbing me.” Sandoval says his total losses are about $2,500 and he’s now left with just one iPhone X. He reported the theft to police and he’s hoping the surveillance video helps them track the guy down. [Source: ABC30 Action News]
Couple wanted for organized retail crimes
A married Kissimmee, Florida, couple that was part of a organized retail crime ring is wanted by Polk County authorities after helping to rob a home improvement store of more than $200,000 across six counties. Alexander Febles-Mirelis 36, of Desoto Drive, Kissimmee, has a Polk County warrant for his arrest, and is believed to be in the Miami area. He has a Polk County warrant for conspiracy to commit fraud over $50,000; conspiracy to commit grand theft over $100,000; and three counts organized dealing in stolen property. Giselle Sanchez Juala, 41, of Desoto Drive, Kissimmee, who is Febles-Mirelis’ wife, also is believed to be in the Miami area. She has a Polk County warrant for conspiracy to commit fraud over $50,000; conspiracy to commit grand theft over $100,000; and organized dealing in stolen property. On Dec. 20, the Polk County Sheriff’s Office Organized Retail Crime (ORC) Unit charged four out of five suspects (one died in November) who were working together to steal hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of merchandise from Home Depot stores in six counties during an 11-month time frame: Polk, Hillsborough, Lake, Orange, Osceola, and Seminole.
In all, the Office of the Statewide Prosecutor charged the suspects with 26 felonies. The suspects committed 275 confirmed thefts from July 2016 –to June 2017, stealing more than $220,000 from Home Depot. According to a Polk Sheriff’s Office report, the investigation began in April 2017, when Home Depot loss prevention personnel contacted the agency. The suspects worked together, under the direction of ring leader Alberto Vera-Caraballo, 48, of Orlando, to take merchandise (including flooring, vanities, counter tops, doors, tools, and accessories) to the self-checkout lanes, and while one suspect distracted the clerk, the other suspect walked out of the store with the items in a cart without paying. The suspects would then return the stolen merchandise back inside the store in exchange for a Home Depot gift card. They then sold the gift cards at a jewelry store in Altamonte Springs. In total, the suspects obtained 271 Home Depot gift cards, totaling $220,000. Vera-Caraballo then sold them to a jewelry store for a total value of $149,000 ($71,000 less than the face value of the cards). Recently, Home Depot changed their return policy, no longer allowing the private sale of Home Depot gift cards. [Source: Osceola News-Gazette]
Another retailer’s POS system was breached for months, exposing customer credit card details
It seems Equinox isn’t the only company that’s accidentally exposed sensitive customer information this year. Popular clothing retailer Forever 21 had its payment system compromised at retail locations throughout the country for several months during 2017. After hiring “leading payment technology and security firms” to assist with their investigation into the issue, the company discovered that some POS systems at certain Forever 21 store locations had their built-in encryption mechanisms switched off, which allowed malware to be installed. This malware in turn allowed hackers to search for and likely obtain sensitive customer credit card data. “In most instances, the malware only found track data that did not have a cardholder name,” Forever 21’s official customer notice reads. “But occasionally the cardholder name was found.” These hacks reportedly took place at “varying times” between April 3rd and November 18th, 2017, leaving the company’s customer base vulnerable for roughly 8 months – though it’s possible that at certain Forever 21 locations credit card data stored in system logs prior to April 3rd could also have been exposed.
The company has made it clear that the length of time each affected POS system was vulnerable varies greatly from store to store. “In some stores, this scenario occurred for only a few days or several weeks,” Forever 21 said in a statement. “and in some stores this scenario occurred for most or all of the timeframe.” Forever 21 has not yet released any specific information regarding how they plan to prevent these issues from happening in the future, though they have promised to “[continue working with] security firms to enhance [their] security measures.” That said, the company has advised their customers to obtain copies of their credit reports and consider placing a fraud alert on their credit files if they have reason to believe they may have been affected by this data breach. This isn’t the first time a major retailer has been hit by a cyber-attack, GameStop and Chipotle were both the targets of similar attacks during April and May, 2017 respectively. [Source: TechSpot]
The post Breaking News in the Industry: January 2, 2018 appeared first on LPM.