Customers force restaurants to deal with identity theft issue!
According to Visa, the most common place for credit card information
to be stolen is at a restaurant.
“We have seen a recent spike in requests from restaurants who want
merchant accounts with wireless technology that will support credit
card processing at the table…” – Says Doug Olsen of Cardservice International
“…It turns out that restaurants are the most likely place to get your identity stolen and become the victim of credit card fraud. Customers are demanding that their credit cards never leave their view when they dine out. This high demand and recent media attention has caused our phones to ring off the hook. Restaurants want to convert their old credit card terminals into new secure wireless credit card terminals that can be used at the table.
Many of our restaurant merchant account holders have told us that even their non-concerned patrons appreciate the change. These patrons have commented on the restaurant’s pro-active approach and have even been telling their friends that your identity won’t get stolen when you visit their restaurant. The customers really appreciate it and since we introduced our special wireless merchant accounts for resteraunts, our business has tripled.”
Also, in a recent story By SCOTT MAYEROWITZ of ABC News we learned that 40 percent of all credit card theft occurs at dining locations – 97 more than at any other type of merchant.
He also said that Gourmands are not being ripped off by waiters or busboys who quickly copy down their information, although that can happen. The problem is a bit more high tech than that.
Most of the theft actually occurs when hackers break into a restaurant’s computer system and download the credit card information.
Visa is now starting to crack down on restaurants and other merchants that aren’t properly storing credit card data.
Jennifer Fischer, a director in Visa’s payment systems risk and compliance department, said the company was not sure why restaurants were more of a target than other businesses.
We have been asking every single restaurant who calls and and we have our theories. Read the rest of the story at: Restaurant Identity Theft Prevention
One Comment
I just saw this on CNN. Amazing! identity theft at restaurants is a much larger problem than we thought.
Use the URL below to see the story. Here are the Story highlights.
• Waiters in 40 restaurants in 5 states stole diner’s credit card information.
• Ringleaders paid waiters $35 to $50 for information from each credit card.
• Suspects then created high-quality counterfeit credit cards.
• Credit card fraud ring operated from November 2005 until this week
Read the entire story at:
http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/04/21/new.york.identity.theft.ap/index.html
As always, I am available to comment on ways to prevent this from happening. Our compnay provides high quality solutions for restaurants. We recently rolled out a special program to help restaurants prevent identity theft.
If you would like to contact me regarding this issue, please use the contact form at: cardserviceinternational.com