Thieves stole Apple Retail Store employees’ “Isaac” handheld sales devices, then used them to send themselves some $1.5 million in Apple Gift Cards over a two-year period between 2015 and 2017.
William Gallagher for AppleInsider:
Most Apple Gift Card scams involve users being ripped off over fake ones, but in the case of Jason Tout-Puissant and Syed Ali, the cards were genuine — but stolen.
According to Business Insider, Tout-Puissant stole multiple “Isaac” handheld devices from Apple Store employees. These are the iPhone-based devices that allow any retail staff to take payments, instead of requiring buyers to queue at checkouts.
Once in possession of an Issac, Tout-Puissant reportedly sat outside the Apple Store, so that he remained on its staff Wi-Fi network. He then issued thousands of dollars of Apple Gift Cards at a time, and texted them to Ali.
Tout-Puissant is said to have done this at many Apple Stores across the US, and then always sent them to Ali, who would be waiting in a different state. Ali would then go into a local Apple Store and buy Apple goods using the gift cards.
MacDailyNews Take: Seems like the logical system would be that whenever an Isaac device goes missing, the retail staffer reports it and that device is immediately bricked, or at least remotely stripped of its ability to perform transactions, not left operational for two years.
No sign in was required? These devices do not sit around unlocked.
That it took this long to finally discover this theft makes me feel as if the devices were ‘borrowed’ temporarily (employee on break and left device unattended?) and returned w/o the employee realizing anything amiss.