Fighting fraud is not new for the Puyallup Police Department but advances in technology have made it more challenging.
When Detective Jason Visnaw started heading up fraud and identity theft division for the department in 2006, more often than not he dealt with check fraud. Only two years later his biggest challenge is tracking down and thwarting the efforts of credit card fraud culprits.
“We’re beyond the point of people laminating a card cover over a card,” he said.
Since the beginning of 2008 there have been 46 cases reported involving credit card fraud, with as few as one to as many as 70 victims per case.
“A lot of the reports state the victim still has their card but somebody’s using it,” said Lorri Ericson, Puyallup Police Department spokesperson. “They don’t know how.”
It could be a case of a new trend in credit card fraud, Visnaw said.
This trend employs the use of skimmers and willing employees at local businesses. What happens is when a customer goes to an establishment, like a restaurant, and pays their bill with a credit card the employee uses a skimmer to record the card information. A skimmer is a small electronic device that can fit in the palm of a hand. It has a place where a card can be swiped and memory for the information can be stored.
If the card isn’t in sight of the customer when it’s processed it is pretty easy to do, Visnaw said. Once the card information is stored, someone picks up the information and programs it on another card.
The cards that are used are the VISA gift cards that can be found at a number of stores. It looks like a credit card and can hold any card information, but it doesn’t have a name on it and often has a limit printed on the face of the card.
When the reprogrammed card is swiped for a purchase at a businesses it goes through but uses the stolen information.
However, the last four digits that the merchant can see won’t match up with the last four digits on the card, Visnaw said.
After the fraud has been committed it becomes a daunting task to track down the bad guys, he said.
“It’s nearly impossible to narrow it down unless you have multiple victims,” Visnaw said.
And even then there’s no guarantee. If the victims all use the same bank it can become easier to track down the fraud, but again there isn’t a guarantee. It is even more difficult because the reprogrammed card is most often used by someone who bought it from someone else.
“We have not completely dismantled an operation like this,” Visnaw said.
Although it is a sophisticated operation, there are a number of red flags that could prevent credit card fraud. In fact, there are simple steps customers and merchants can take to help prevent them from becoming a victim.
“The biggest thing to me with any type of fraud is educating the public,” Visnaw said. “Every time they think of a new way to do something, it can be avoided through educating the public.”
Rule number one when using a credit card is to never let it leave your sight, he said. If a customer goes to a place where they know their card will be out of their sight for a while, pay in cash instead.
“I think it’s worth the five minute stop at the cash machine,” Visnaw said.
Encourage merchants to check identification when using a credit card, he said. Businesses are supposed to ask anyway, Visnaw said, but often they don’t. He has even heard cases where the merchant's agreement with credit card providers is that they don’t check identification.
For merchants there are ways to keep reprogrammed credit cards out of their businesses. Many of the gift cards that are reprogrammed with stolen information have dollar amounts printed on the face of the card. If someone tries to make a $500 purchase with a card that has $100 on the face that is an obvious red flag, Visnaw said.
Also merchants shouldn’t type in credit card numbers, he said. If they try to swipe several cards and none of them work it could be a case of credit card fraud.
Checking the last four digits of a receipt against the last four digits on the card is a good way to make sure the account information is the same. If fraudulent information is being used the numbers won’t match up.
Communicating with the police department and other businesses also gives merchants an upper hand in being aware of trends and scams.
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