Credit card fraud is running rampant. The only way to be sure your bussiness or place of employment is protected is if the credit card passes through a credit card terminal. Credit card companies are in the bussiness of protecting individual card holders and not companies. This is reasonable as the amount of credit card fraud that occurs is unbelievable. On a day to day basis we tend to worry about small criminals and petty theft that is not calculated, or at least I did until a recent event occurred. I would like to share this story to spread awareness. Details have been ommitted because I want to share the story without sharing where the event occurred.

I recieved a call on a Friday afternoon requesting a large item for an event the following day that the "customer" was going to have picked up. It was an urgent situation and he was unable to come into the store because he was working on a big developement project on Lake Simcoe. The party was for his staff. He provided his name, Toronto address (which was in an extremely wealthy area nearby) and credit card number with the CID. I asked him if he had access to a fax machine because I would have faxed him a credit card authorization form. He said that he did not but that his driver was authorized to sign for his business card because it was a bussiness VISA. There were mutiple conversations back and fourth and the call display showed "his" bussiness name Preffered Services.

The item that the "customer" needed to be disassembled was quite an ordeal to prepare for his staff to pick up. He even said that he would send some guys to help us do the job. So we proceeded to do what we could the following day and then waited for the men to arrive. When the people he was supposed to be sending were late I called the "customer." He told me that the truck they had intended to use for the pick-up had broken down and that he could not take the large item. Also he said that it was not what his partner wanted either. I said "Oh no it was almost ready for you too." He said that he felt terrible and he would pay staff wages for the work we had to do. I said "No do not worry about it. You could not have known that your truck was going to break down and if your partner does not want it then I will just refund your card." He said "No you have gone to far too much trouble. I owe you the bussiness. Just issue me a gift certificate and I will use it later. I will send one of my guys in to pick it up." I said "Well you do not have to do that but that is very nice of you." I created the Gift Certificate. The driver arrived and said his boss gave him a list of things that he wanted to use the gift certificate for if we had anything suitable. I said we only had floor models and I wanted the "customer" to come in at a later date and get something that was new and truly catered to his tastes since it was an expensive purchase.

So the "Driver" left with the Gift Certificate and called his boss. The "customer" called again and said he understood my concern about selling him expensive items that he has not seen but it is just for his cottage where they are doing the developement project and he trusts his driver to choose appropriate items. He said that he would come in and custom order items for his Toronto home but that the cottage did not matter. Mainly he just really wanted something specific for the company BBQ. The tone of his voice was understanding and compassionate. He said to just use the Gift Certificate for two key items he wanted and to use the rest for small items like BBQ sets which would be useful. I said ok and the "driver" returned a little bit later. We put together the amount on the gift certificate with items in the store. The driver and I were talking and I said it was hard for me to spend someone elses money. He gave me this whole story about how his boss was a Millionaire and he was really nice and took care of people. The driver said he was a little embarassed. He said that he used to be a proffessional Cabin Builder and he was injured on the job, and when this happened his Boss put him on light duties such as running errands and so on permanently for 30 dollars an hour. He said he also gave him large amounts of cash for doing spur of the moment requests. He said one time he paid him $1000.00 to pick up 2 laptops for his children who were going off to Europe the following day. So the "Driver" left with two key items and other accessories that would have been useful for the BBQ. Four days later we recieved a call from a woman asking what we sold at our store and said she had no idea what our company was but that she had a large charge on her VISA. This transaction amount matched with the sale to the "Deveolper."

Since I had never dealt with a fraud incident before I was nieve and bought the whole story hook line and sinker. However, it was a learning experience. Now I know to watch out for someone trying to establish a persona by imparting a lot of information about themselves, to watch out for excessive compassion and communication because it is a technique to establish trust, and to call the credit card company and verify information prior to product leaving the store if a physical presentation of a credit card cannot be made. Also bussiness names on caller id's mean nothing. A criminal can have their caller ID display whatever they want and they can do it with a pay as you go cell phone that is untraceable.

It is just like the Police officer said when we filed the theft report "If it sounds too good to be true it is."