Jason, the Manager of our newsXpress Forest Hill store was bitten by a customer yesterday. The customer was trying to retrieve two credit cards he handed over for a transaction. Jason suspected, based on a call from our bank’s fraud department on Monday, that one of the cards was stolen. The customer became agitated and got behind the counter while Jason was on the phone to be bank. In the ensuing altercation, the customer bit Jason and escaped. The Police came can and gathered evidence of the assault.
This all started with a transaction on December 26 for which a customer used a stolen credit card to transfer money to a prepaid card. Since it went through the bank we did not know of a problem at the time. One the same day a similar transaction using the same card was done at our Frankston newsagency. The bank called us Monday and from then we were on alert.
Yesterday, when an identical transaction was presented at Forest Hill, Jason stepped in. His role as Manager of the business does not require him to be physically attacked by customers like this. The Doctor treated the wound and gave Jason a tetanus shot, it will be three months before he knows if the bite introduced any infection.
We have tightened prepaid Visa card loading transactions and now will only take money from another card if the customer has the PIN number. While the bank does not require this we feel it is an appropriate precaution.
That’s not good, I wish Jason well.
What was it that brought the card to attention? The signiture? Card error?
the sooner banks make all credit cards pin only the better
it will take eighteen months to roll out the pin only transaction as it did in most of europe