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Dont fall for the "this credit card machine is not working' trick

There is a new card scam that has just surfaced and it is done by our trusted tellers.

A lot of times we are often told that “this card machine is not working so I am just going to get another one quickly” by our tellers, petrol attendants and waiters. Well apparently it is a money stealing scam.

According to MyBroadband a lot of waiters and waitresses are now bringing in their own credit card machines and other POS (Point of Sale) devices into restaurants to scam people.

Most people have  been in situations where the waiter or the teller is struggling to get the payment to go through and has to change the card machine. They usually go and collect their own device.

“What they’ve done is put skimming software into these POS devices and when you swipe your card through it, it records your card information. When you put your pin in, it records your pin number,” said Western Cape commercial crimes unit head Lieutenant-Colonel Jerome Hardenberg was quoted on the website on Thursday.

“They [syndicates] would obviously pay waiters handsomely to introduce this. We very seldom found that managers were collusive when this happened.”

This forms part of other card frauds that have hit the country mostly at ATMs.

The best thing to do is to ask for the manager to confirm if the card machine is indeed not working before the waiter, teller or the petrol attendant changes it.

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