Three suspects in Kent stole from businesses by tricking employees into issuing refunds after manually entering their card numbers.
Imagine you are an employee in a busy store and a customer comes to the checkout with a few things to purchase. The customer then tells you that they have to manually enter their credit card information because the tap to pay option doesn’t work. They ask you to hand over the payment device because they don’t trust anyone with their card details. The suspects then quickly authorized a refund to their card for items they had not purchased.
This is the trick that many businesses in Kent told police had happened to them.
One of the businesses told police they had lost $500, while another store reported losing $1,500.
Police describe the suspects as three young black men who were last seen driving a gray 2006 BMW with Washington license plates.
The suspects will act aggressively to distract the cashiers.
Kent Police advises employees never to hand over payment devices. Instead, they should offer to manually enter the information for customers or call the police if they feel threatened.
Anyone with information about the suspects can leave a tip at [email protected] or call the Kent PD Tip Line @ 253-856-5808.