LAYTON – A 59-year-old man was charged Thursday after police said he was caught exchanging 100 gift cards for counterfeit cards at two Smith’s grocery stores in Layton and Kaysville, part of an allegedly sophisticated fraud scheme.
Ziping Lin entered a Smith’s in Kaysville on August 4th and, according to the investigating Layton police officer, “a store employee observed Lin changing gift cards at the gift card stand. It was odd. They were cards that appeared new.”
The charging documents say Lin, a Chinese national with no known address, stole and altered gift cards from Visa, Mastercard, Apple, Lululemon, Sephora, Amazon and other companies.
According to police, this was part of a plan to funnel money that customers believed was intended for the purchase of gift cards into Lin’s hands.
“The scratch-off security stickers that covered the sensitive card identification information were carefully removed, the card identification information was copied, some of that information was then altered or obscured (some digits were scratched off), the security stickers were then replaced, and the cards were made to look like new so they could be put back on the racks at Smith’s for customers to purchase,” court documents say.
After the purchase, customers would no longer have had access to the credit loaded on the cards.
A store manager noticed what was going on, took photos of Lin and confronted him, police said. However, Lin fled before police arrived and went to a Smith’s Marketplace in Layton, court documents say.
Employees at nearby stores had been alerted to possible fraudulent activity in the area, so employees immediately noticed when Lin began swapping cards at the Layton store, police said. Officers were called and arrested Lin at that location, the police affidavit states.
“When police attempted to arrest Lin in Layton, he broke free from them and attempted to flee. He then feigned a medical emergency, rolling around on the floor and moaning,” charging documents state. “Medical personnel were unable to determine an emergency, and when police found a Mandarin interpreter, his charade stopped.”
The man entered the country illegally via San Diego in August 2023 despite being arrested and tagged by border police, the indictment says.
Between the two stores, Lin is said to have exchanged a total of 100 compromised gift cards and possessed 32 more. The total value of these cards ranged from $3,120 to $31,150, according to police, depending on the amount customers loaded onto the cards.
In an interview after his arrest, Lin told police he did not know how he got to Layton. He said he was approached by an unknown person in the parking lot of Smith’s Marketplace and offered $2 to put the gift cards in the rack.
The indictment states that he claimed to be homeless but had a hotel key with him and “did not disclose who he was working with or who was helping him.”
Lin faces one count of communications fraud (a second-degree felony), one count of attempted money laundering, 30 counts of possession of forged documents (both third-degree felonies), and one count of attempted theft by deception (a Class A misdemeanor).
Davis County Assistant Prosecutor Jeff Thompson wrote in charging documents that prosecutors may file separate charges for each of the gift cards found, which so far totals 132 rather than the representative sample of 30 listed.
Layton police told KSL.com that they believed they were able to recover all of the cards allegedly deposited by Lin and that they do not believe the customers purchased fraudulent cards, although that is not yet known for sure.
Police advise checking each gift card for damage or suspicious scratches before purchasing and reporting any cards you have already purchased that have been found to be stolen to the gift card company as soon as possible.
Lin was held without bail in the Davis County Jail prior to his first audition.
