Creditnet News Story
Credit card information stolen from restaurants in phone scam
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
By William Davis
A man who claimed to be a police detective duped a number of restaurants into giving out the credit card information of its customers.
According to a report from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, television station WHP-TV, a man identifying himself as either a local or federal officer, once using the name "Officer Miller," recently called several restaurants along the Carlisle Turnpike in Hampden Township and said he was conducting a fraud investigation. Part of the investigation, he told the restaurants, required that they give him the information on every credit card the restaurant had scanned that day.
The report said that employees from at least two restaurants fell for his scam, and gave out account information for more than 80 consumers. Five of those accounts have already been used to make illegal purchases in New Jersey.
A separate report from Lancaster, Pennsylvania television station WGAL said that the local police are telling people who visited the restaurant recently to look over the credit card statements and alert police to any purchases that may look suspicious.
