Latest credit card scam

[sbr]

Sounds like an urban legend, not something I would worry about even if one dude pulled it off

HK police just confirmed the cases.

How many cases?

[Monoriu]

Sounds like an urban legend, not something I would worry about even if one dude pulled it off

HK police just confirmed the cases.

How many cases?

At least 2, more are under investigation. 

[Monoriu]

Both cases happened in the same restaurant chain.  It is well known for not having enough staff.  I am a regular customer of the chain and I often see not a single staff in a grand hall of 50 tables 

[Brazen]

Not so much a scam as fancy dress stealing.

[Valdemar]

Wouldn't happen here anymore, credit cards are payments are done by the table with a remote device, plus PIN protected cards are the norm, not signatured ones.

V

[Martinus]

How long can it take someone to realize their credit card isn't coming back?  A few minutes?

Remember, we're talking about an extremely busy restaurant, one in which there could be one waiter for 10-20 tables.  It can take 5-10 minutes for you to get hold of any waiter.  Then you need to ask him to find out why the credit card isn't coming back.  The waiter first needs to serve food at 3 tables, take orders at 2 more, give more chopsticks to another, before he has time to talk to his cashier to find out what's going on.  When the cashier tells him she has never seen the card, the waiter has to talk to his manager. The manager is himself very busy serving food.  And when he has time to listen to the waiters' story, he has to verify it by talking to the customer and cashier and other staff.  Add all this time up, it may be up to half an hour before the customer realizes that his credit card has been stolen.  It takes like 10 minutes for a thief to buy jewelry and max out the card.

Err... anyone who lets a waiter get his credit card and go with it alone to the backroom or whatever deserves to have the hell scammed out of them.

Besides, I'm surprised Hong Kong is so backwards - pretty much every credit card accepting restaurant in Poland these days has mobile terminals, so the waiter comes with it to your table and you pay with the card there. And if it doesn't, you always accompany them to wherever the terminal is.

[Martinus]

Wouldn't happen here anymore, credit cards are payments are done by the table with a remote device, plus PIN protected cards are the norm, not signatured ones.

V

yup, same in Poland.

[Monoriu]

Wouldn't happen here anymore, credit cards are payments are done by the table with a remote device, plus PIN protected cards are the norm, not signatured ones.

V

We still sign our names on carbon copies. 

[Martinus]

Wouldn't happen here anymore, credit cards are payments are done by the table with a remote device, plus PIN protected cards are the norm, not signatured ones.

V

We still sign our names on carbon copies.

But what about mobile terminals?

[katmai]

I mean I know all you chinks look alike to me, but ffs when you guys can't even tell the difference...

[Monoriu]

Wouldn't happen here anymore, credit cards are payments are done by the table with a remote device, plus PIN protected cards are the norm, not signatured ones.

V

We still sign our names on carbon copies.

But what about mobile terminals?

Never heard of them.  Never seen one.

[Brazen]

They don't have chip and PIN in half the world yet Mart. Despite having used credit cards in Hong Kong, mainland China and a lot of New Europe, the only place abroad I've had my credit card abused is the good old US of A

[Cecil]

Wouldn't happen here anymore, credit cards are payments are done by the table with a remote device, plus PIN protected cards are the norm, not signatured ones.

V

We still sign our names on carbon copies.

But what about mobile terminals?

Never heard of them.  Never seen one.

Carbon copies? 

I think we stopped using those in the 80ies.

[Martinus]

They don't have chip and PIN in half the world yet Mart. Despite having used credit cards in Hong Kong, mainland China and a lot of New Europe, the only place abroad I've had my credit card abused is the good old US of A

Well, in Poland credit cards still are "classic" ones. Only the debit cards and "payment cards" (i.e. the ones that do not create a credit to be repaid, but rather go directly to your savings account and take money from there) have chips and/or use PIN. Fortunately, most places let you pay with the latter too (it used to be only credit cards some time ago). Still, mobile terminals are pretty widespread.

[Martinus]

Wouldn't happen here anymore, credit cards are payments are done by the table with a remote device, plus PIN protected cards are the norm, not signatured ones.

V

We still sign our names on carbon copies.

But what about mobile terminals?

Never heard of them.  Never seen one.

Mobile terminals look like this:



The one in the picture is a fancy one as it allows to put your signature in the window too. The ones our restaurants use simply print out slips of paper on which you sign (in case of a classic credit card) or you simply enter the PIN number by using the keyboard.