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Payment Card Fraud Alert July 2012
- 10 July 2012
The Irish Hardware And Building Materials Association have been alerted by Úna Dillon, Head of Card Services & Communications, Irish Payment Services Ltd. to a scam that is occurring in retail outlets at the moment, about which they believe our members should be aware.
The scam has occurred before here some years ago and involves an individual (naming himself Mark in some cases) phoning shops and purporting to be an engineer from their acquiring processor. He uses the names of AIB Merchant Services, Elavon, etc. and appears to know the ins and outs of the shops’ terminals.
The caller advises the shop staff that he needs to check something on their terminal and asks them to put through some refunds to a ‘dummy’ card. He assures them that the refunds won’t go through as it is a ‘dummy’ card.
The shop assistant then puts through the refunds,assuming they are just test transactions and are then told by the caller to shred or dispose of the receipts as they are no longer needed. Some shops have reported losing up to €14,000 in this way, with most of the refunds being around €2,000-€3,000.
Shops should be advised to report any similar calls, to their acquiring bank. If such a person calls, staff should be advised to hang up and to check with their acquirer on the phone number they know to be valid.
Source: IHBMA - Payment Card Fraud Alert July 2012
