People often tell tales about how their stolen credit cards are used to make unauthorised payments. But this Indian business got nearly defrauded when a suspected credit card fraudster transferred money into their account in advance for a 'catering' order.
Adelaide-based Indian restaurant, Curry Lounge, nearly got fined at least $500 for processing a seemingly-fraudulent credit card transaction for an email order received last November.
Ritu Bhardwaj, the manager of Curry Lounge told SBS Punjabi how the restaurant had a very close brush with being dragged into a legal battle pertaining to credit card theft and being slapped with a penalty by their bank.
On November 11 last year, Curry Lounge received an email from an email ID that seemed to belong to a “William Smith” but quoted the name “Andrew Barborn” in the email.
"Andrew wrote that he is also from Adelaide and wants us to cater Indian food for 60 people for a fourth wedding anniversary celebration. He also enquired whether we accept payment by credit card. It seemed to be an innocuous query, so we emailed him our menu, " Ms Bhardwaj said.
"He selected the dishes and placed the order. We sent him a quotation of $1020. Andrew offered to pay by emailing us his credit card details. Even this didn’t ring an alarm bell in our heads, because it isn’t normal for people to email their card details," she added.
"We processed the transaction. It all seemed to be genuine as the money was credited to the restaurant’s account. What followed that, set off an alarm bell for us,” Ms Bhardwaj said as she narrated the episode, adding how their bank red flagged them soon after.
Ms Bhardwaj says that after Curry Lounge’s bank account received $1020 from Mr Barborn, he emailed them back with another request, this time employing tactics to evoke sympathy.
“He wrote that he was overseas, receiving cancer treatment, so he wanted us to do him a favour. He went on to say that he would appreciate if we could make a payment of $1390 to a flower decorator, who, surprisingly, didn’t have a credit card access facility and also that the flower decorator will pick up the food on the day of the event."
"We agreed to pay him but also mentioned that we will have to levy 10% GST as per the law if payment is made from our account. All we thought of at that point was to help out 'a cancer patient in need'. And because he had authorised us to charge his credit card with or without the CVV to ensure payment definitely goes through, we had no reason to suspect him,” Ms Bhardwaj added.
Receipts of money transferred to Curry Lounge's account. Source: Supplied
Soon after Curry Lounge’s bank got wind of these transactions, they rang them up. “Our bank had found out that the credit card with which these payments were made, did not belong to any bank in Australia. We were asked for ID proof of the payer, and we had none,” Ms Bhardwaj said.
The one mistake that Curry Lounge made in this entire scheme of things was processing a payment over email, without checking adequate ID proof of the customer and not taking signatures on the merchant copy of the receipt.
A striking quality about this suspected fraudster is that he didn’t make a fuss about anything at all: the price of the food quoted, the levy of GST on the payment to be made to the flower decorator without making this purchase from Curry Lounge and permitting the merchant (Curry Lounge) to charge the card with or without CVV, which is a security feature in such transactions.
Also suspicious is that “Andrew Barborn” cited cancer once and an ear ailment another time while expressing his inability to communicate over the phone and stick to email.
“Our bank explained to us that if this transaction was approved over the phone, they wouldn’t be too surprised because you can trace someone easily over the phone. But things get complicated when the same is done by email,” Ms Bhardwaj said, adding that Curry Lounge refunded his money soon after.
On November 15, Ms Bhardwaj emailed him to say that the bank suspects this transaction, which is why the money had been refunded.
She added that they would cater to him if he comes into the restaurant to place the order and make a payment in person.
Ms Bhardwaj says, "After receiving this email, 'Andrew Barborn' vanished into thin air. There was no reply from him after that." Ms Bhardwaj said.
But the story doesn’t end there.
Ms Bhardwaj said Curry Lounge received another email on December 29 from an email ID that apparently belonged to a “James Brabon” but has “Andrew James” as name of the person making a similar query.
“But now, we are once bitten twice shy. So I wrote back to him saying that we accept orders and payments only inside the restaurant,” says Ms Bhardwaj, who says this is her experience with a seemingly-fraudulent transaction.
Having worked with big brands in the hospitality sector like Hilton and Accor Hotels, Ms Bhardwaj says they are far more robust in terms of fraud.
“Fraudsters realise that small businesses like restaurants don’t have the kind of defences that big brands have, so they are on the prowl for unassuming targets. But I have now upped my guard,” says this Chandigarh girl, who recently completed her MBA from Torrens University, Adelaide.
