Lawrence man, 31, indicted on wire fraud charges in connection with alleged credit card scheme
A 31-year-old Lawrence man was indicted Wednesday on ten counts of wire fraud, U.S. Attorney Barry Grissom said in a news release Thursday.
Jawad Obaid is alleged to have gotten credit cards from Capital One, Chase Bank and U.S. Bank and used their rewards program websites to make online purchases from businesses selling on the sites, Grissom said. This generated “tens of thousands” of reward points to his accounts from the credit card companies.
Obaid is alleged to have canceled the online purchases within 24 hours of payment, then used the built up rewards points from the voided purchases to redeem $143,000 in cash rewards in the form of checks and direct deposits to his accounts, Grissom said.
If Obaid is convicted of the charges, he could be sentenced to up to 30 years in federal prison and a $250,000 crime for each count, Grissom said.
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