ICE Director Todd Lyons just revealed ICE recently busted the largest gift card fraud scheme EVER — and that stolen money was being sent DIRECTLY BACK to military units in CHINA

x.com ^ | April 16, 2026 | Nick Sortor @nicksortor

[ransomnote]

Nick Sortor
@nicksortor
·
3h
🚨 HOLY CRAP! ICE Director Todd Lyons just revealed ICE recently busted the largest gift card fraud scheme EVER — and that stolen money was being sent DIRECTLY BACK to military units in CHINA

It was being carried out by illegal Chinese men who were let in under BIDEN

All military aged, of course.

The scam is fairly simple: these Chinese fraudsters steal barcodes off gift cards from retail stores, place them back on the shelf, and when a shopper buys it, that money is IMMEDIATELY skimmed by CCP operatives who have the numbers in a database

And the American consumer is left with a worthless piece of plastic, unbeknownst to them.

ICE agents are doing HEROIC work — no matter what the Democrats say.

April 16, 2026

 

[Governor Dinwiddie]

This is why we can't have nice things.

[Texas_Jarhead]

Perhaps my quick response was wordy and vague. Anyone with a gift card redeem can sell it online at a discount to face (I think it’s like 25%-45% off) to a buyer for cash, trade or crypto.

[Governor Dinwiddie]

Chinese national pleads guilty to tampering with gift cards in Florida grocery stores.

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

Can't be.

The Chinese are wonderful, smart, hardworking, supremely moral Christian people who only want to help us and give us puppies to snuggle.

5000 unbroken years of civilization!

So much more advanced than us mongrel Americans. They should be in charge of everything!

Anything else is purely CIA propaganda.

Or... you know... reality.

[FatherofFive]

there are exchanges online where people buy gift cards at a discount to face value for cash or crypto

I know people who do this using rewards credit cards to fund lavish vacations. Small margins, high volume

[Getready]

Happened to me. Would love to see retribution.

[Freedom_Is_Not_Free]

I have been dubed by X posts over and over.

Does anybody have a link for this to Fox News or anyone I can trust? I been burned so often by passing on news “breaking” by anonomous guys on X that I just can’t do it anymore, even when they claim to be from official sources.

If this is true, then AP or Fox News or somebody must be covering the story.

Link please?

[ransomnote]

Are you saying you think the video clip of Lyons talking about it at a public hearing is fake?

No need to ask others to check on your behalf. If you want to check out posts, type a fragment in a search engine "Todd Lyons gift card fraud" and look for other articles. Or, you can ask GROK if it's true. Here's an excerpt of Grok's reply:

Yes, Todd Lyons (Acting Director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE) has publicly spoken about gift card theft and fraud on multiple occasions, including in recent congressional testimony.

What Lyons Reported: In testimony before the House Homeland Security Committee, Lyons stated that Homeland Security Investigations (HSI)—a key investigative arm under ICE—broke what he described as the largest gift card fraud case ever. He linked it to transnational criminal organizations with ties to Chinese networks (often described in reports as CCP-linked or "within the CCP").

[lee martell]

Diabolically Sneaky!!!

[11th_VA]

Thanks for posting that - I recall seeing that a few weeks ago. This post connects the dots

[Freedom_Is_Not_Free]

I am not declaring it fake. I am saying I am very cautious about ANYTHING single sourced from a place like “X” with no corroboration. I have been fooled by way too many AI generated fakes and disinformation recently.

I pretty much demand authoritatives confirmation by at least one more source that I trust, like Fox News. I hate that I have to rely on Fox News, but I have seen way too much BS and lies and deception on social media, designed to confuse us and sow chaos.

Believe what you want but I need everything posted to “X” confirmed by at least one other source that is at least established enough to get a black eye being caught in lies.

I already did a search on this and could find no corroboration that it is true, so I am just noting the information and not relying on it.

[Freedom_Is_Not_Free]

OK, I finally today found an article confirming this from World Net Daily.

https://www.wnd.com/2026/04/ccp-huge-threat-ice-chief-confirms-chinese-illegals/

That is the kind of corroboration I demand today. So call this confirmed, but in the future I will still demand this kind of 2nd sourcing. I will not believe any sole source news that comes down from a poster on “X”, because I just can’t prove it is real and not an AI fake.

Anybody can fake anything and fake it coming from any source they want to fake.

It is not enough to post one blurb or vid from “X”. That doesn’t cut it anymore for me. There must be at least one more source I trust confirming that news.

[spintreebob]

“not believe any sole source news”

This is our problem ..the DOGE and Inspector General problem.

I post that the biggest fraud is in HHS because that is where the money is. And DELOITTE is the biggest fraudster in welfare programs. I saw this first hand 214-2025. In 2013-14 the GA DCH CIO went to great lengths to prevent this fraud. But the swamp won.

But it doesn’t exist until the NYT says it exists.

Left wing KFF has documented a Deloitte fraud separate from the fraud I focus on. But they are ignored here because they are left wing. Believe it or not there are those on the left who oppose fraud.

[ransomnote]

In the General/Chat forum, on a thread titled ICE Director Todd Lyons just revealed ICE recently busted the largest gift card fraud scheme EVER — and that stolen money was being sent DIRECTLY BACK to military units in CHINA, Freedom_Is_Not_Free wrote:

OK, I finally today found an article confirming this from World Net Daily.

https://www.wnd.com/2026/04/ccp-huge-threat-ice-chief-confirms-chinese-illegals/

That is the kind of corroboration I demand today. So call this confirmed, but in the future I will still demand this kind of 2nd sourcing. I will not believe any sole source news that comes down from a poster on “X”, because I just can’t prove it is real and not an AI fake.

Anybody can fake anything and fake it coming from any source they want to fake.

It is not enough to post one blurb or vid from “X”. That doesn’t cut it anymore for me. There must be at least one more source I trust confirming that news.

 I stopped reading World Net Daily years ago when they dropped the ball on corroborating their articles - they said the equivalent of 'we try to use the best sources we can' when they were confronted on false reporting. I know this because I posted this information on a thread many years ago.

Nick Sorter, who carried the video of Todd Lyons has a good reputation for accuracy, better than that of World Net Daily. Sorter is followed by people on X like DataRepublican (small r) @DataRepublican, Mike Benz @MikeBenzCyber; O’Keefe Media Group @OKeefeMedia; Rep. Lauren Boebert @RepBoebert and many others who have proven reliable.

You're demanding I use inferior sources. You may have to seek out such inferior sources for yourself instead of demanding that I do it. 

I'll record the link to this post so that when you make your demands, I don't have to bother others with my explanation - I can just post the link.

[spintreebob]

Just an example. I type in “Nov 2020 GA Vote”. The first 11+ articles give no hint of a dispute. They give a final number. Some give more detail. Select page after page and eventually you find an article that mentions the dispute.

Type in “Nov 2020 GA Vote dispute”. The first 6 articles are among the first 11 in the prior search, but not in the same order. “Dispute” is not mentioned til the 7th article. Yet “dispute” is the subject of the query.... the very nature of the query. As one pages down, Of the first 5 articles that mention the dipute only 1 The GeorgiaRecord could be considered from the “dispute” side. 4 of the first 5 say the dispute is “unfounded”.

Of course, the allegations are neither proven nor unproven. The honest answer is only that we can speculate.

Of the 12,000 difference between Biden and Trump in the original count, 3,000 have been proven fraud, bringing the margin down to 9,000. Of that 9,000 there are anecdotes of fraud. But there has been no serious attempt to prove the allegations... Those who make allegations seem to think that allegations are sufficient and proof is not necessary.

A similar statement could be made about many other events, both political and non-political. Allegations are made. Anecdotal support of the allegations are made. There is no proof, no dis-proof of the allegations.

Allegations are made about illegal immigrants. Anecdotes are told. But there is no proof of how many illegal immigrants are in the US, no breakdown by over-stay of visa vs never a visa or other types of breakdown. just allegations and anecdotes.

Allegations and anecdotes are made about the welfare system. But nobody really knows the extent. How much FRAUD is by the IT Vendors (I claim Deloitte is the single biggest welfare fraudster.) How much FRAUD by Providers? How much FRAUD by recipients? How much FRAUD by Agency staff? We have anecdotes of each type. Anecdotes is all we have.

[Freedom_Is_Not_Free]

No, I am not demanding “inferior sources”. I am saying I need another source to confirm anything posted to “X” or any other social media outlet.

That is as clear as I can be. I need a 2nd source to corroborate a social media source.

[ransomnote]

In the General/Chat forum, on a thread titled ICE Director Todd Lyons just revealed ICE recently busted the largest gift card fraud scheme EVER — and that stolen money was being sent DIRECTLY BACK to military units in CHINA, Freedom_Is_Not_Free wrote:

No, I am not demanding “inferior sources”. I am saying I need another source to confirm anything posted to “X” or any other social media outlet.

That is as clear as I can be. I need a 2nd source to corroborate a social media source.

You were able to find a source of which you approve. Well done. I reject your approved source. I don't want to get into the position of having to try to guess what source you will approve of, nor of having to dig up additional sources for other people who don't agree with your choice of sources.

Do plan to check veracity. When I am uncertain of a post, I post Grok analysis and it's sources which it used to validate the authenticity and origin of a video or person's statements. If I don't post to your liking, you have your strategy in hand (search for it).