Man gets prison for selling fake gift certificates

ST. LOUIS -- A High Ridge, Mo., man was sentenced to five months in prison Friday for selling fake gift certificates to the Applebee's Neighborhood Grill and Bar chain on eBay.

Jeremy Marshall, 23, pleaded guilty to one count of mail fraud Jan. 27. He was ordered to pay $74,000 in restitution.

Marshall created fake Applebee's gift certificates and sold them on eBay between 2002 and August 2003, according to court records. He usually offered $20 gift certificates in books that would have been worth $400 if they'd been real.

There is no record of how many were actually used at Applebee's.