Polizeipräsidium Rheinpfalz reported on September 11, 2026 that a Ludwigshafen woman had bought roughly EUR10,000 in Apple gift cards after a WhatsApp contact posing as Elon Musk promised a prize. She sent the card codes, according to the police account reproduced in full by MRN-News. The purchases took place over preceding weeks; the announcement is not an exact transaction-date schedule. [S01] [S02]
Paid gift value and the refused follow-up request must stay separate
A second contact subsequently promised to bring her money on September 9. When the supposed handover did not happen, that person claimed to have been detained by police and demanded another EUR650. The woman refused. The account does not specify that the second request was to be paid with a gift card. [S01] [S02]
The two reported amounts have different payment status
The September11 police account distinguishes approximate Apple gift-card purchases from a later payment demand the woman refused.
EUR
Tap or hover for details. All values are also available in the data table.
Source
The EUR10,000 is an approximate reported purchase total. The EUR650 was requested but not paid and is not identified as a gift-card purchase. Do not add them as a EUR10,650 loss or infer redemption, recovery, a time series or a population fraud rate.
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| Category | Amount associated with each reported stage |
|---|---|
| Gift-card purchases, approximately, codes sent | 10,000 EUR |
| Later demand, refused, payment method unspecified | 650 EUR |
The chart deliberately separates those stages. Only the approximate EUR10,000 is described as gift-card purchases with codes disclosed. The refused EUR650 request is not additional expenditure, and neither number establishes how much value was actually redeemed by a third party or recovered. The public figure’s name was the impersonator’s pretext; the source does not implicate the actual person. [S01] [S02]
Apple’s own June 24, 2026 guidance says its cards are for eligible purchases from Apple and warns that a stranger obtaining the redemption numbers may spend the funds before the purchaser can reach support or law enforcement. That explains why passing the codes is commercially distinct from retaining a physical card. The guidance is a general issuer warning, not independent verification of this woman’s transactions or a guarantee of recovery. [S03]
The case describes a false prize promise, transfer of redeemable information and a subsequent attempt to extract more money through another pretext. The police release announces no arrest, recovered amount, issuer-system compromise or final court finding. It gives no card-by-card values, retail locations or activation and redemption records, so this single disclosed case cannot quantify the wider prevalence of Apple gift-card fraud. [S01] [S02]
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Daniel Brooks
Daniel Brooks covers payment networks, financial technology, payment security, gift card fraud and PCI DSS for Gift Card News.