Published: May 06, 2008 09:17 am      

Debit card scam starts with local pizza order

When Richmond resident Teresa Crump recently paid for her pizza order over the phone using her debit card, she thought nothing of it.

Today, she is the victim of identity theft and wants to alert the community.

An employee of a local pizza restaurant took the order over the phone, and when Crump was finished giving her debit card number, the employee asked her for the three digits on the back of the card.

These numbers are located in the signature strip on the back of all credit and debit cards.

Three days had passed when Crump noticed there were some unauthorized charges on her account.

Most of the fraudulent charges were made over the Internet totaling about $140.

“Just as I thought it was done, more charges went through,” she said. “The perpetrator again used my card number to try and use Western Union and send himself cash from my account. If I hadn’t checked my balance today, this person would have gotten me for $2,100 in three separate attempts.”

Crump’s experience is unfortunate, but not uncommon, said Heather Clary, public information officer for the Better Business Bureau in Lexington.

“It would not be unusual for a company to request you to provide (the three-digit) code,” Clary said. “It’s done simply to verify that you have the card in your possession.”

Crump was not accustomed to being asked for the three-digit code when placing food orders.

“Although I had never been asked this before, I didn’t see what the big deal was,” she said. “I have four children and I work all day. With the kids running around and my being tired I thought nothing of this and gave the digits on the back of my card out. I have never had a problem using my debit card over the phone to order pizza in the past and didn’t see this any different.”

Despite Crump’s unfortunate experience, there is a valid lesson to be learned, Clary said.

Use of the Internet to check her account balance saved Crump from possibly getting more money stolen, she said.

“People often are hesitant to do their banking online,” she said. “If you use online accounts to monitor your credit rather than waiting for that monthly statement, you may have added protection like she did.”

When it comes to using a debit card to place orders over the phone or the Internet, consumers may want to choose an alternate method, Clary said.

“If there’s a fraudulent charge on the credit card, they have a mechanism to dispute any unauthorized charges,” Clary said.

When it comes to debit cards, there could be ways to dispute such charges, but that mostly depends on the banking institution itself, she said.

Crump filed a police report Friday with the Richmond City Police, but no arrests have been made.

Ronica Shannon can be reached at rshannon@richmondregister.com or 623-1669, Ext. 234.