Scam advice.

[susanq]

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?

[susanq]

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?

[susanq]

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?