An Apple store employee allegedly scammed the company out of nearly $1 million worth of gift cards

Reuters/Stephen Lam The cost of the gift cards came to $997,000.

A former Apple employee has been charged with grand larceny and other crimes after allegedly buying nearly $1 million (£647,000) in Apple gift cards using fraudulent credit and debit card information, NBC New York reports.

Twenty-four-year-old Reuben Profit started working for Apple in 2013, and transferred to Apple's Queens Center Mall store in New York when it opened in July.

While working there, he allegedly used fraudulent credit and debit cards, as well as other gift cards, to buy multiple Apple gift cards worth a total of $997,000 (£645,000).

Profit manipulated the information on the magnetic strip still found on gift cards and many American payment cards, re-encoding it with fraudulent details. When he was arrested, he was allegedly in possession of 51 fraudulent Visa and American Express gift cards, and seven Apple gift cards worth $2,000 (£1,294) each.

He told police that he was paid $200 (£129) for each $2,000 Apple gift card that he passed on to another party.

Charges were formally read to Profit on Friday, and is being held on $20,000 bail. If he is convicted when he goes back to court in November, the former Apple employee could face up to 15 years in prison.

We have reached out to Apple for this story.

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