The Estevan Police Service (EPS) is alerting the public and businesses to be aware of a new credit card fraud.
The suspect attempts to use a non-working credit card or a card belonging to another person. The pin pad indicates a chip malfunction when the card’s chip is inserted into the device. The employee will usually try to swipe the card, causing another malfunction.
The suspect will then persuade the employee to manually enter the card number. The employee is given the number verbally by the suspect, or the employee will hand the pin pad to the suspect to enter the number.
The number used is a credit card number that the suspect has memorized before entering the establishment, not the number on the card they have given the employee. Suspects also have been known to use fake identification in some instances.
The manually-entered number works at the time of the transaction, but will eventually be charged back to the business as a fraudulent number. The police encourage businesses to educate themselves and their staff not to enter any credit card numbers manually.
Police ask businesses to use the security features offered by the chip or the card swipe technology, and to verify the identity of the holder or owner of the card.
To report the existence or recurrence of a scam, please contact the Estevan Police Service at 306-634-4767 or the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre at 1-888-495-8501.
