BOSTON – A New Hampshire man was sentenced yesterday in federal court in Boston for trafficking in more than $350,000 in stolen retail gift cards.
Khoa Doan, 34, of Manchester, was sentenced yesterday by U.S. District Court Senior Judge Mark L. Wolf to 12 months and one day in prison, three years of supervised release, and ordered to pay approximately $180,000 in restitution. Doan pleaded guilty to access device fraud conspiracy in December 2016.
Between May 2013 and October 2014, Doan was part of an international scheme to defraud online retailers, including Walmart, Best Buy, Home Depot, and Apple, among others.
Doan’s Vietnam-based co-conspirators used stolen account credentials to gain unauthorized access to customers’ online accounts at the retailers’ websites. Once in the accounts, the co-conspirators either stole the customers’ online gift cards or used their stored payment card data to purchase gift cards and consumer goods. Doan recruited runners in the United States to take those e-gift cards and “clear” them by purchasing consumer goods that Doan would re-sell. The scheme made approximately $368,000 in fraudulent orders and netted approximately $180,000 in proceeds.
Acting United States Attorney William D. Weinreb; Matthew J. Etre, Special Agent in Charge of Homeland Security Investigations in Boston; and Stephen A. Marks, Special Agent in Charge of the U.S. Secret Service’s Boston Field Office, made the announcement. Assistant U.S. Attorney Seth B. Kosto of Weinreb’s Cybercrime Unit prosecuted the case.
--DOJ District of Massachusetts