A Derry Township woman reported losing approximately $247,000 after text messages directed her to buy gift cards and send their codes, according to a July 30 announcement from the Westmoreland County District Attorney’s Office citing Pennsylvania State Police. The reported transactions span January 2023 through June 2026, rather than a single recent payment. [S1]
The account lists 507 Apple gift cards and 190 Foot Locker gift cards. It also reports 126 items described as “Razor Gold gift credits”. The chart compares only the two categories explicitly counted as gift cards; the notice does not identify the issuer behind the credit label. [S1]
Gift cards reported sent in one Derry Township case
Card counts in the police-attributed account of one woman’s reported transactions, January 2023-June 2026.
gift cards
Tap or hover for details. All values are also available in the data table.
Source
One reported case, not an independently audited ledger or industry sample. Counts are cards, not dollar losses. The separate 126 gift credits are excluded because the source uses a different unit. No per-brand loss, denominations or redemption breakdown was disclosed.
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| Category | Reported gift cards |
|---|---|
| Apple gift cards | 507 gift cards |
| Foot Locker gift cards | 190 gift cards |
Troopers said the 69-year-old woman contacted them in June. Messages from different numbers instructed her to purchase the cards and provide their numbers or redemption codes. The notice does not give the individual denominations, the destination of redeemed value or a recovered amount. Its approximate overall loss cannot be divided among brands using the card counts. [S1]
Apple’s own guidance explains the transfer of control involved in disclosing a code: someone obtaining the redemption numbers may spend the balance before the buyer reaches support or law enforcement. Apple cards are intended for eligible Apple products and services. This is product context, not independent verification of the Pennsylvania transactions. [S2]
Foot Locker’s current US terms describe redemption online, by phone or in stores, with older cards lacking a PIN restricted to stores. Those current terms do not establish where any card in this case was spent or which conditions applied when it was purchased. The public police account supplies no evidence of an issuer-system compromise or merchant participation. [S1] [S3]
The commercial mechanism described is repeated retail purchase followed by disclosure of information needed to use stored value. The published counts show the scale attributed to this one complainant; they cannot rank brands’ fraud rates or measure losses across the gift-card industry. The July announcement reported no arrest, and the sources reviewed do not establish a subsequent prosecution or court outcome. [S1]
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Maya Bennett
Maya Bennett covers customer loyalty, employee rewards and incentive programmes for Gift Card News.