Grandmother's report helps lead investigators to sophisticated Colleyville card cloning crime ring
COLLEYVILLE - Colleyville police say they teamed up with the U.S. Secret Service and Walmart Global Investigations to bring down a massive gift card crime ring.
Four suspects were arrested in Fort Worth and indicted on multiple charges related to cloning Walmart gift cards.
The investigation began with a report from Colleyville resident Eliska Matton, who bought a $100 Walmart gift card for her granddaughter's baby shower.
Matton sent it to Louisiana, but her granddaughter never got to spend it.
"She said, Mimi – there's no money on the card," Matton said. "My granddaughter was upset, and then that kind of upset me. So I said, I'll just report it. I didn't expect them to catch anybody."
Turns out, her report with Colleyville PD led investigators to uncover a sophisticated criminal enterprise with more than 1,000 victims.
According to Colleyville PD, 42-year-old Geandy O'Reilly would take Walmart gift cards from display stands, while his three accomplices acted as lookouts, and copy the magnetic strip information at home.
"Then they'd go and return those cloned gift cards to the display stands in the Walmart stores, so unknowing people would just pull them off the front and load them for gifts for friends or family, things like that," said Sgt. Dara Nelson with the Colleyville Police Department.
Detectives say O'Reilly and the other suspects, 35-year-old Anisel Matososa, 56-year-old Ernesto Mato, and 42-year-old Mayluis Novoa, would then spend the victims' money before they could.
Purchases included $2,500 worth of lobster tails from Sam's Club, $5,708 worth of jewelry, $3,322 worth of large screen TVs, $5,645 worth of kitchen appliances, and much more, according to police.
Authorities also found nearly 7,000 Walmart gift cards, two card reader writers, and other "fraudulently obtained" items like electronics during a search of O'Reilly's home and cars.
Police say this criminal operation in Texas is just the tip of the iceberg.
"There was evidence on the ringleader's phone that led investigators to other small rings like this in three other states – Arizona, Florida, and Tennessee," Sgt. Nelson said.
Matton never dreamed all this would come from her report.
"We have a good police department in Colleyville, and I'm very grateful to them for investigating my little gift card theft," she said.
She also hopes it helps others avoid losing money to alleged criminals.
"State, local, and federal law enforcement have done an outstanding job," a Walmart spokesperson said in a statement to CBS News Texas. "We've worked closely with the authorities during this investigation and will continue assisting them."
Police advise people when buying a gift card of any kind to look for any signs of tampering, like scratches or broken seals.
If the number on the physical card doesn't match the number on your receipt, police say it likely means the gift card has been cloned.
