Scam advice.

Author
Discussion

susanq

Original Poster:

638 posts

174 months

Friday 20th February 2015
quotequote all
Background: Friend has a restaurant and received a telephone booking from a guy who said three of his mates would be dining and he wanted to pay £100 up front towards their bill. My friend took the debit card number, the postcode and first line of address that the card was registered to and all received authorisation from bank. The three 'mates' turned up, and their bill came to just under £100. Fast forward one week, plod turns up at restaurant and informs friend he has been the victim of fraud and bank then claims £100 back. Needless to say my friend is nonplussed. He says he followed the correct procedure for taking booking over the phone by following banks authorisation process. What more could he have done?
It seems these culprits have committed this scam successfully at a few local restaurants and restaurants are losing out. Why have the bank taken back the money when my friend did everything correctly?

Spare tyre

9,458 posts

129 months

Friday 20th February 2015
quotequote all
Probably just put it down to experiance

Still got the postcode?

susanq

Original Poster:

638 posts

174 months

Friday 20th February 2015
quotequote all
Police have advised him he may as well forget getting any money from scamsters as they're unemployed. Surely he must have some redress with the bank?

Z4monster

1,440 posts

259 months

Friday 20th February 2015
quotequote all
Did they show up with the card they prepaid on. If he gave the rest back how did he doe the refund?

Pints

18,444 posts

193 months

Friday 20th February 2015
quotequote all
Just so I'm clear, was it a stolen card or not?

susanq

Original Poster:

638 posts

174 months

Friday 20th February 2015
quotequote all
Z4monster said:
Did they show up with the card they prepaid on. If he gave the rest back how did he doe the refund?
They didn't have the card as their 'mate' made the booking with his card. They cheekily left the couple of pounds as a tip.
According to the police the card was stolen. How did they know the postcode and first line of the card holders address? And why, given he'd satisfied the 'security procedure' for the bank, did they take the £100 back? Surely that's their loss, not his?

marshalla

15,902 posts

200 months

Friday 20th February 2015
quotequote all
susanq said:
They didn't have the card as their 'mate' made the booking with his card. They cheekily left the couple of pounds as a tip.
According to the police the card was stolen. How did they know the postcode and first line of the card holders address? And why, given he'd satisfied the 'security procedure' for the bank, did they take the £100 back? Surely that's their loss, not his?
Is he authorised to do "Cardholder Not Present" transactions for final payment? Seems unlikely that a restaurant would be.

Obtaining address & postcode is trivial - as is getting hold of any of the numbers.


Shuttle Cock

400 posts

207 months

Friday 20th February 2015
quotequote all
Pre paying and then turning up for goods/services, possibly the oldest and stupidest scam to fall for as a business owner. I'm not surprised the bank refunded the money!

uuf361

3,154 posts

221 months

Friday 20th February 2015
quotequote all
Without competing the transaction as 'Chip and PIN' assuming it was in the UK, left him open to the chargeback unfortunately....... Very little, if anything, that he cando.

soad

32,829 posts

175 months

Saturday 21st February 2015
quotequote all
Nothing can be done.

Bank will explain their fraud procedures regarding the chargebacks, if needed.

mr_tony

6,328 posts

268 months

Saturday 21st February 2015
quotequote all
Classic scam.
Most places fall for this as they don't know the rules. Most think it sounds odd or fishy but are fixated on getting the money not asking questions. And so the scammers continue to operate...

herewego

8,814 posts

212 months

Saturday 21st February 2015
quotequote all
Surely he should have asked for the 3 digit authorisation code from the back of the card.

marshalla

15,902 posts

200 months

Saturday 21st February 2015
quotequote all
herewego said:
Surely he should have asked for the 3 digit authorisation code from the back of the card.
Another number that provides no protection. As soon as it's disclosed to anyone it's insecure.

KFC

3,687 posts

129 months

Saturday 21st February 2015
quotequote all
herewego said:
Surely he should have asked for the 3 digit authorisation code from the back of the card.
He should have asked to see the card they took the booking on when the group were seated.

Or if he doesn't want to do that for whatever reason then just needs to accept the occasional scam like this one, is a cost of doing business.

SteveSteveson

3,209 posts

162 months

Saturday 21st February 2015
quotequote all
He sold to people who were not the card holder. CNP fraud is the last major problem in fraud. The whole thing would have rung alarm bells to me, but then I work in this area day in day out and am not having to worry about running a restaurant at the same time.

I would say don't take payment over the phone unless you have to. Doing that also risks valid card holders doing charge backs.