CARD MACHINE FRAUD

card-fraud

Please be aware that there is a new scam operating in Ealing, with customers issuing themselves refunds when they are handed a card terminal to put in their PIN.

They can do this because most card terminals have the same factory set PIN. Scammers pick up the terminal to key their number to pay for goods and with a very quick sleight of hand tap ‘menu’, then ‘refund’ and put in the factory set PIN to authorise the payment.

Clever scammers keep the sum exactly as the payment required as most people only look at the total on the tear-off slip. However, one business narrowly escaped refunding a fraudster £3,000 when their bank queried the disproportionate size of the refund compared to the average sale.

We urge all businesses to immediately change the factory set PIN as this is a new type of scam which could have devastating consequences for a business.