Editor's ChoiceCategories Credit Type Issuers Blog

What To Do If Your Customer Gives You A Stolen Credit Card?

06/29/2009

Here is another reader question that we got:

I am a business owner who just got scammed by a male customer. He gave us a credit card to hold while he pumpled his gas and then drove off. My employee didn’t realize that the card was in a female’s name. The name of the card holder is xyz (not revealing real name obviously), I have her account number but didn’t want to give it out over the internet.

We did try to run the card just to see what would happen and it said to call the merchant service. We knew right then it was a stolen card.

Please call me at xxx-xxx-xxx for more information.

Owner Pam Peeples

My thoughts – Pam, couple of things spring to mind.

1. Have you reported this to the police? You should if you have not.

2. The credit card might have the thief’s fingerprints. I hope that both you and your employee have not smudged it! If there is a fingerprint and the person has a criminal background, then it would be easy for the police to identify the person.

3. Do you have a camera in your gas station (that’s what I presume)? If you do, identifying the guy would be easier. If not, then maybe that is something you would want to consider.

4. Just wondering : but if the card has a female name and the person was a guy, why did you even try to swipe it and charge it?

I would also go further and actually call the credit card company and tell them about this incident and that they should cancel the card, inform the card holder and issue a new card to her. You should report it to the police as well. At the very least, you employee will be able to give the police a description of the guy and a police sketch of the person. The police might just be able to catch the person based on your employee’s description.

Even if you report to the police, there is no guarantee that person will ever be caught. Hence, just be prepared to write this off.

RELATED POSTS
1 Comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.


*


Privacy Policy Terms and Conditions About Me Disclosure Contact Me

Newsletter Sign Up

Name

Email