Nordstrom Employee Spends $143,634 With Another Person’s Credit Card, Earns Thousands In Commission

An employee of a Nordstrom store in the Mall of America was caught scamming the company out of thousands of dollars by racking up credit card debt on someone else’s account.

According to CBS Local, last July, 29-year-old Kyle Geiken filled out a Nordstrom credit card application under the name Amber Toste, a 32-year-old woman from Minneapolis. Using Toste’s account, Geiken was able to purchase thousands and thousands of dollars worth of high-end Nordstrom products like shoes, clothing, and handbags. Among the expensive items was a single piece of Nordstrom jewelry, valued at more than $26,000.

Nordstrom security cameras caught the former employee using his position at the company to check out item after item, paying with Toste’s credit card. Authorities believe Geiken somehow acquired an override code from Nordstrom to bypass the credit card limit of $1,000. He continued this scam at the Nordstrom store for two weeks, charging a total of $143,634 to the Minneapolis woman’s account.

Kyle Geiken had no interest in the Nordstrom products himself, he was only concerned with the commission he got from selling so much merchandise. After the $143,634 was charged to Toste’s credit card, Geiken had earned $12,675.53 in commissions from the Nordstrom store. On August 2, shortly after ringing out his last purchase, the employee quit his job at Nordstrom and took the commission money with him.

Nordstrom did not approve any of the illegal transactions, and had no knowledge of Geiken filling out the credit card application or overriding the credit card limit. Investigators are unsure if the former Nordstorm worker had any connection to Amber Toste, or if he simply stole her identity on which to dump credit card debt. Cell phone and email records are being checked for any evidence that Kyle Geiken was in communication with Amber Toste about the Nordstrom purchases, or whether Toste was in on the scam.

Kyle Geiken and Amber Toste have both been arrested for the Nordstrom scam, but neither of them have been charged as of yet.

According to the Sun, both the homes of the former Nordstrom clerk and Amber Toste have been searched. Geiken’s home, at least, had merchandise linking him to the Nordstrom scam. If nothing purchased on the credit card is found at Toste’s home, it could be possible that she was simply a victim.

For more stories about Nordstrom stores, read about the Black Friday shooting at a Nordstrom store, or the new touchscreen mirrors that Nordstrom is installing in fitting rooms.