October 12,2015
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, Ridgewood Police report that on Thursday, October 1, 2015, a Hawthorne resident reported that fraudulent charges were made on his/her credit card account shortly after dining at a Ridgewood restaurant. The victim felt that the server at the restaurant may have skimmed his/her card when it was presented for payment.
Be aware anytime that a credit card leaves your possession there is the possibility that it may be “skimmed”. “Skimming” involves the card being swiped through a small handheld device easily concealed in the palm of one’s hand, that downloads the cardholders account information, which is then utilized for fraudulent purchases.
In some cases, the fraudulent charges are made by using the account number while in others an actual cloned credit card is manufactured using the cardholder’s information. Many times, these schemes occur at restaurants and gas stations where attendants take physical possession of credit cards since the credit cards leave the cardholder’s sight. This matter is under investigation by the detective bureau.
Staff members from the Ridgewood blog recommend using extra caution at , gas stations, restaurants , health care visits and car rentals .
Use Cash for gas stations, restaurants, groceries. Checks for health care, all else.
@11.54am: Why? You are not on the hook for any fraudulent charges.
The new chipped cards help but I have alerts set with my card companies to text & email me of any charges every time my card # is used – swiped, online or manually entered.
Soon we’ll be swiping our own cards at restaurants as we now do at grocery stores, Trader Joe’s, etc. Maybe that will extend to gas stations
What locations in town had the skimming incidents? That is important for a resident and possibly a customer to know.
Beware of men in balaclavas working on laptops next to damaged cars? Is that the message? OK, will do.
“next to damaged cars?” What damaged car?
What businesses were involved? Consumers should be notified.
You would never know which business. Also, it’s not as if the business owner(s) would even be involved. What happens is an employee is able to run the card through a skimming device (that only they know about) before they run it through the actual CC machine. This technique is done in card payment situations where you loose sight of your card during the payment process. Gas stations (the ones that still take your card into their office while you sit in your car) and restaurants are where this goes on.