A San Francisco Bay area restaurant owner was recently busted for running an identity theft scam that involved fraudulent charges on his former customers credit card numbers months after the restaurant had closed down. Apparently, the scam was first uncovered about nine months ago, but turned out to be much larger than authorities had first thought.
“It is one of the most serious [cases],” says Harris, “because of the fact it’s a merchant that is committing the theft and that it was a repeat offense. So, it was not just one situation where the identity was stolen for the use of one charge.”
The victims of the scam feel much the same. “It’s a scam, it’s a crime, and he has to be [put] in jail,” said one of his victims, Irene Bartholomew. “That’s it. He has to [go to] jail.”
The case was actually instigated when Bartholomew contacted a news television station and claimed that she found a $175 charge on her credit card from the restaurant over a year after it had closed. When the news team went to the Home Menu Restaurant with Bartholomew in order to confront the former owner, the fraud was revealed.
When confronted, the store owner actually fled reporters, who peppered him with questions as he attempted to flee. The reporters also found that there was no food on the shelves or any signs that the restaurant was still open. Nonetheless, there were two cash registers at the restaurant and three credit card machines, all of which were powered up. The reporters also found a new receipt that had been recently printed.
The news team went on to find 15 other people that were scammed in a similar way. Each of them had either been billed by the Home Menu Restaurant or by Asia Taste, which was the name of the restaurant the same artist was planning to open. Each of charges were over $100, with one being a whopping $935. According to the prosecutors, the man actually managed to charge over $50,000 on the credit cards fraudulently, taking advantage of about 100 people.
In addition to facing criminal charges, the man had previously been flagged by the company that issued him the credit card machines he used to make the fraudulent charges. Unfortunately, he’d been flagged before but simply used fake addresses and other people’s names in order to get additional machines and keep his scam intact.
If ever there was a story to highlight the importance of checking those monthly statements on your credit cards, this is certainly it. If not for Bartholomew noticing the fraudulent charge, this guy might still be taking advantage of unsuspecting customers.
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