WATERBORO, Maine (NEWS CENTER) — Police in Sanford arrested a man from New York Tuesday night following a string of recently reported fraudulent credit card scams at retailers across southern Maine.
Karl A. Jacques, 25, of Brooklyn, New York, was arrested by police outside the Hannaford in Waterboro shortly after being refused a sale by an employee.
Earlier in the day, police said they learned through an investigation that Jacques had allegedly made purchases of several high-value gift cards at Hannaford supermarkets in Sanford, Wells, North Berwick and York. They said they had reason to believe the purchases were made using fraudulent credit cards.
Police said Jacques visited the Hannaford in Sanford shortly before he visited the Waterboro location. The Sanford supermarket's loss prevention team had reported its transaction with the suspect to police citing its indicative similarity to incidents at other local retailers.
Upon the suspect's arrest, police seized around 40 credit cards — all bearing the suspect's name — and $4,800 in gift cards.
Jacques was charged with felony theft and is being held on $25,000 cash bail.
Police say the scam begins with credit card numbers being illegally obtained, usually by card skimmers that are placed on ATM machines. Once the numbers are obtained from the skimmers, they say the credit card numbers are sold and purchased online.
Fake credit cards are manufactured using the card numbers and account information of unsuspecting victims, according to police, who say the cards are typically used until their limit is reached, or until the issuing bank shuts the card off.
Police say purchasing high-value cards is a common tactic used by the perpetrators of this scheme because gift cards can be used like cash and are not easily traceable.
