Santa Rosa police last month arrested two men and confiscated more than 25,000 compromised gift cards related to a fraud operation potentially spanning hundreds of CVS locations in California, police said.

The arrests occurred on Aug. 7, after automated license plate readers in Sonoma County captured the plate of a vehicle associated with prior fraud incidents, Sgt. Patricia Seffens said in a news release.

On Aug. 1, the department received an advisory of that same vehicle’s possible connection to a crime known as “gift card draining.” In this operation, scammers record or alter the activation information for legitimate gift cards, then re-seal them. When someone buys one of the tampered gift cards, the scammers access the funds when it is activated, draining the card of its value. The a

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