Pair charged in ‘international scheme’ targeting Belk
WILMINGTON NC January 1 2018 — A multi-state scheme to defraud a department store chain. More than 90 reported victims. $100,000 allegedly stolen. And it all ended this month in Wilmington.
On Dec. 18, Wimington Police Department officers arrested a pair of men reportedly found with fake credit and gift cards outside the Mayfaire Town Center Belk. Now, detectives say Henrique Teixeira Mendes De Almeida, 29, and Gustavo Teixeira Mendes De Almeida, 34, were involved in a massive black market enterprise.
Police spokeswoman Jennifer Dandron said the two are brothers from Portugal with a residence in Florida.
Police Detective Daniel Fortier said the Almeidas used a card scanner to put stolen credit card numbers on fake credit cards, and more than 90 potential victims of the identify theft have been identified so far. After buying items, the men allegedly shipped them to Florida to be resold internationally.
“It all started from the Belk’s organized retail crime investigators,” Fortier said. “Throughout the state they’ve been watching some suspects use fraudulent credit cards to purchase merchandise and gift cards, and then shortly thereafter, a week or two, the money that they’d use to purchase those items were refunded to the actual cardholder.”
Each man is charged with 21 counts of forgery of instrument and one count obtaining property by false pretense. But Fortier said he’s in contact with police from other municipalities across North Carolina — as well as federal investigators — who may press charges of their own.
The men are being held at the New Hanover County jail with bails set at $125,000.
The actual arrests happened after a Belk loss-prevention officer at Independence Mall recognized the Almeidas from a picture circulated to employees this month. After realizing the men were no longer in the store, the officer called the Mayfaire Belk, where an officer there called 911.
During a search of the rental car driven by the duo, officers found 94 credit cards, 102 Belk gift cards worth $300 each, dozens of pieces of Belk merchandise, a card scanning device, and an address list for every Belk in the Southeast — many of which had marks beside them denoting they had been visited.
The men also had numerous passports and other forms of ID with aliases and differing information, police said.
Dandron said the conflicting identification made it difficult for police to confirm their true identity.
“They were (initially) listed as John Does in the system,” she said.
Fortier said it’s unclear at this point how long the alleged scheme has been in operation, but Charlotte-based Belk estimates it has cost the chain over $100,000. Fortier said he believes other people may have been involved in the operation.
“When they’re conducting these types of crimes, it’s a pattern that they use. They’re used to it, they know the routine,” Fortier said. “With them not having been caught until now, it’s been relatively easy for them to get away.”
Wilmington police were aided in the investigation by the U.S. Secret Service, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department and the Coral Springs, Florida, Police Department, the release stated.
StarNewsOnline.com.
