$5K Gift Card Scam In NJ Leads To Arrest 2 Years Later, Police Say

SUSSEX COUNTY, NJ — A man has been arrested two years after defrauding a Sussex County victim in a gift card scam, police say.

In April 2024, a Newton man reported to police that he'd received an alert on his laptop that his "computer had been compromised," and it gave him a phone number to what was labeled as a "fraud prevention service."

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The man called the phony number, and somebody falsely claiming to be a "fraud prevention specialist" answered, police say.

The phisher convinced the man to purchase several Home Depot gift cards, officials said. The victim then provided the gift card information to the phisher, resulting in a loss of roughly $5,000, according to police.

A follow-up investigation showed that the gift cards were redeemed at several locations in Massachusetts, authorities added.

Further investigative efforts led police to identify Lixi Wang of Flushing, New York, as a suspect. Wang was added to the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) as a wanted person.

It wasn't until July 29, more than two years after the scheme, that Wang was located by the Nassau County Police Department and extradited to New Jersey.

Wang was processed on a criminal complaint warrant and is being held in the Morris County Correctional Facility to await court proceedings.

"The Newton Police Department reminds residents that legitimate financial institutions, government agencies, and fraud prevention services will not instruct individuals to purchase gift cards and provide the card numbers or access codes to protect or recover money," a statement read. "Anyone who receives such a request should discontinue contact and report the incident to law enforcement."