The Brockville Police Service is starting to receive several complaints again this summer of groups of individual using counterfeit credit cards to purchase large quantities of gift cards at local retail outlets. The scammer attends to businesses who sell gift cards and using fraudulent or stolen credit cards purchase retail and VISA / MasterCard prepaid cards. The transactions often take place on the weekends before the next retail business day on Monday when the store owner learns the card is fraudulent, and the scammer has made off with the gift cards.
Business owners are urged to take the following precautions:
i) Verify the authenticity of the card before completing the transactions.
ii) Notify your supervisor where possible of the transaction.
iii) Ask for Identification from the customer to verify they are the owner of the credit card.