2 isle malls see
flood of fake
gift certificates

Stores lose $1,350 to the
sharp forgeries, all passed
within a short period of time

Honolulu police are investigating a flurry of fake $50 gift certificates that have been used at Kahala Mall and the Pearlridge Shopping Center over three days.

Fourteen stores, 13 of them at Kahala Mall, accepted 27 of the certificates for $1,350 in losses.

Police have arrested three people who allegedly tried to use the certificates, but investigators said many more suspects have used them successfully.

"We've never seen this before. The store clerks are all describing different suspects," said Lt. Pat Tomasu, head of HPD's Financial Fraud Unit. "They've described males, females, Caucasians, locals, different ages."

But they're all using the same fake gift certificate, Tomasu said. "We're looking into whether they all got it from the same source."

Both Pearlridge and Kahala Mall shopping centers are operated by MMI Realty Services Inc., and offer $50 gift certificates that can be purchased at customer service offices and used at either location.

Tomasu said the forgeries are good enough that people would have a hard time distinguishing them from legitimate certificates, even when they are side by side.

Kahala Mall officials said they noticed too late that two safety features on the real certificates were missing from the forgeries.

"This group of people working all at the same time were able to cover a lot of stores," said Jaydence Tamashiro, Kahala Mall marketing manager. "They hit women's apparel shops, jewelry stores, specialty retail shops ... they were pretty quick, and unfortunately it wasn't brought to the attention of the security department immediately.

"People have tried to create counterfeit certificates in the past, but not as good as this one," Tamashiro said.

Police have arrested three people for suspicion of second-degree forgery.

On Sunday, police arrested a 25-year-old man who allegedly tried to use a fake gift certificate at two Kahala Mall stores.

On Monday at Pearlridge, police arrested a 38-year-old woman and a 52-year-old woman who allegedly tried to use the forgeries.

Tomasu said the fake certificates do not appear to be related to the four forgery factories that HPD discovered in Waikiki and Downtown over the last two months. Elaborate fake identification labs had been set up at various hotel rooms.

She said detectives are interviewing the suspects to find out who is making the certificates.

"It is kind of alarming that these all of a sudden appeared, especially such a great number in a short period of time," Tomasu said.