Burlington police officers arrested Ariel Foster, 19 of Boston, for allegedly making over $500,000 in fraudulent charges through a credit card scam at Lovisa, a jewelry store in the Burlington Mall, where she worked.
According to Burlington Police Chief Thomas Browne, Foster allegedly scanned items at the register for well above their actual price, then refunded the amount to her own credit card. Over the course of eight transactions between Feb. 2 and Feb. 22, Foster allegedly refunded her own card a total of $547,187 and made several high-value transactions, including more than $35,000 for a Tesla, almost $6,000 to Delta Airlines, more than $20,000 to a hotel in Maui, Hawaii, and almost $5,000 in Louis Vuitton purchases.
Foster allegedly took the money from the store; no customers or customer credit cards were impacted.
“The amount is huge, and when something like this happens, the best way that we can get ahead of it is to be made aware of it as soon as possible,” Browne said. “Lovisa did a great job of getting their team in place to allow the detectives to do what they needed to do to track this down, and hopefully restore as much of the money as possible.”
Burlington detectives Brittany Zaccagnini and Sage Costa led the investigation.
Foster is from Boston and is a student at Lasell University in Newton. On March 8, officers tried to find Foster at her Boston home, but just missed her. Browne said officers called her, and she was cooperative and agreed to meet them at her dorm at Lasell University. Foster has been released on bail and will likely be arraigned Friday at Woburn District Court.
Larceny over $1,200 is a felony and carries a penalty of up to five years’ jail time.
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