If you accept credit cards, read this scam.

If you accept credit cards at your business, there is a scam going around you and your employees should be aware of:

The crook presents a credit card and his ID. The ID seemingly checks out. The fraud starts when the crook says he has "an extra level of security" on his account and tells you the sale will have to be processed in "offline" or "force" mode so he can enter a personal authorization code.

Having worked with retail for years, I saw right through it. What the crook is doing is making up a bank approval number. When it actually goes in for settlement to your account, it's kicked out as a fraudulent, non-bank issued approval number and you've lost your money/merchandise.

When I tried to call the card in, the thief developed an attitude. I stood firm and, before reaching the approval agent, the guy and his hoodlum friend grabbed the card and left. The $400 notebook PC the creep wanted is still here.

The moral? NEVER accept a credit card payment unless you have received a BANK ISSUED approval number, either electronically or by phone.

PS: When I called Chase to report this after he left, they didn't give a s**t and refused to take the report. It shows they have no interest whatsoever in curbing credit card fraud. :mad

 

Chase is actually incredibly proactive about credit card fraud. Did you have the customer's name, the card number, something like that to give them?

 

I had the last four digits of the card #, and I had a full name, address, drivers license # and processing ID # from the "force" ticket (which I initially ran then immediately voided to capture the credit card # so Chase could trace it).

When the Chase rep. answered the phone, I told her I had a "code ten" (bank lingo for a suspicious card transaction and a term used in their phone menu). She had no idea what a "code ten" was and, when I told her the details, she said they didn't take reports on incidents like this. On top of this, she had an attitude problem that made it sound like I was interrupting either her doing her nails or chatting with her BFF on Twitter.

 

Weird. Sounds more like a case of one rep needing to be fired as opposed to the entire organization having a problem. When my card number got stolen, Chase called me within 20 minutes of the first fraudulent transaction to let me know there was a problem.

 

Good tip. You might call or email Chase again, and see if you get a better response. I can't see why they would not want to prevent cc fraud.