Burlington police arrested a 19-year-old Lasell University student Wednesday after she allegedly scammed the Burlington Mall jewelry store she was working at out of $500,000 and used that money to buy a Tesla, Louis Vuitton merchandise, and a trip to Hawaii.
Burlington police allege that on three different occasions in February, Boston resident Ariel Foster increased the price of merchandise purchased at Lovisa, the jewelry store where she was employed, and then refunded the cost of the item to her own credit card.
Across eight fraudulent transactions allegedly made by Foster, the store lost a total of $547,187, police said in a news release Thursday.
Police said they discovered the credit card scam when they were called to Lovisa on Feb. 22 to investigate a credit card machine breach. Once police identified Foster as a suspect, they served subpoenas to her banks. Her accounts allegedly showed the fraudulent transactions.
Foster’s accounts also showed that between Feb. 2 and Feb. 22, she spent $35,000 on a Tesla, $6,000 on Delta Airlines flights, over $20,000 on a hotel in Maui, and nearly $5,000 on Louis Vuitton merchandise, police said.
“Greed took over. I don’t know how else I would classify it,” Burlington Police Chief Tom Browne told reporters Thursday. “…When I first saw the amount I thought it was a mistake.”
When they checked her bank account they said she bought a Tesla for more than $35,000, spent more than $20,000 on a hotel in Maui, Hawaii, almost $6,000 on Delta Air Lines tickets and nearly $5,000 on Louis Vuitton items.
"Greed took over. I don't know how else I would classify it." said Burlington Police Chief Tom Browne. "When I saw the age I was surprised as well and when I first saw the amount I thought it was a mistake."
"When something like this happens the best way we can get ahead of it is to be aware of it as soon as possible," Browne said. "If one of my children came home and said they are trying to buy a Tesla while they are trying to go to school that's certainly going to raise those flags for me."
"You would think that a refund of a costume jewelry transaction should not allow you to buy a $5,000 Louis Vuitton purse," said David Levenberg of Center Security Services.
Levenberg is a mall and retail security expert. He says this case highlights major flaws in the Lovisa system. The scam should have sounded alarms, before an alert co-worker noticed a $1 million order that Foster had failed to clear out.
"They look for opportunities. They look for loopholes, they look for weaknesses. If they find one, they will take advantage of it. That's just the nature of the beast in retail and a lot of other industries. If there's money involved and potential for somebody to benefit from that, they're going to find a way," Levenberg said, of employee scams he's investigated at major retailers.
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