Scammers Strike Lowe's
By: Nadia Bashir
Updated: November 3, 2010
The Secret Service helped take down a ring of local suspects accused of scamming Lowe's stores across 11 states out of $125K. About $25K of that was taken in Allen County. Four of the suspects are from Fort Wayne, the fifth is from New Haven.
Police say the scam, which began in 2005, centered around switching bar codes. Suspects used many identities and returned items with fraudulent bar codes. They obtained gift cards worth more than the true value of the item.
Most of the scamming took place in the Hoosier state.
A spokesperson for Lowe's said the company would not comment due to the pending investigation. However, Lowe's loss prevention department initially detected the fraud and is working with police as they investigate.
