Two arrested in fraudulent debit-card use

Two men were arrested after they used fraudulent debit gift cards to make purchases at the Target store in the Green Acres Mall in Valley Stream on Wednesday, Nassau County police said.

Dashawn Morgan, 23, of 1630 E. 102nd St., Brooklyn, and Justin Barber, 25, of 116-20 146th St., Jamaica, Queens, were each charged with third-degree grand larceny.

Police said Morgan was additionally charged with 10 counts of second-degree possession of a forged instrument, while Barber was charged with four counts. Both men face arraignment Thursday in First District Court in Hempstead.

Police said the two used fraudulently re-encoded Vanilla Visa debit cards with bank account information "obtained from other financial institutions." Those cards were used for purchases at Target.

But, police said, a store "loss prevention associate" uncovered the fraudulent purchases -- and notified the Fourth Precinct. Officers were able to get a description of the vehicle being used by Morgan and Barber and located it near Sunrise Highway and Central Avenue in Valley Stream at about 2:30 p.m. Police said there were "numerous" fraudulent Vanilla Visa cards in the car that were recovered during the arrests.