Two charged in fake gift card scheme

YOUNGSTOWN — Two men accused of defrauding local Giant Eagle stores of thousands of dollars are charged with several felonies.

Anton Pyateysky, 19, of Austintown, and Mureed Amireh, 26, of Youngstown, pleaded innocent Tuesday in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court to charges of theft by deception, criminal simulation and criminal tools.

Austintown detective Dan Kosco said the two men had been reproducing bar codes off of activated Giant Eagle gift cards, and then and distributing them.

They were using gift cards that had balances, “and then making duplicate bar codes,” he said. “They sold them for less than the face value of the gift card.”

Kosco said the bar codes were printed on heavy paper, much like the type used to make business cards.

“It was clear that they weren’t real gift cards,” he said.

Read more in Thursday’s Vindicator and Vindy.com