Waiter quizzed over card scam
A Paris restaurant worker is alleged to have memorised bank card numbers and sold them on
A WAITER is suspected of memorising and selling on customers’ bank card details.
A 19-year-old employed in a Paris restaurant in the 14th arrondissement has been questioned by police accused of using his memory skills to remember customers’ card numbers as they paid – including the three-digit security code on the back.
Police say investigations so far suggest he was then selling them to accomplices in the Poètes estate at Pierrefitte-sur-Seine, Seine-Saint-Denis, who then used the numbers to buy items on the internet (holidays, barbecues, pool cleaners etc) before reselling them cheaply on other sites.
Police say they have identified a total of 300 fraudulent uses of cards – for thefts totalling €435,000 – but fear it could have been the “tip of the iceberg” with many tourists on short stays not being identified.
The man was taken in for questioning after several months of investigation. He was already on police files in relation to 32 crimes, notably thefts of mobile phones, a police source told Le Figaro.
The source said bank card scams are increasingly popular with criminals in the Paris suburbs, adding it was not surprising if they were “exploding” because the penalties are minor, less than for snatch thefts and for a much greater gain.
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