True story from Sunday September 7, 2014. Feel free to share/repost as a warning. This happened to me on Sunday while shopping. I consider myself as someone who is very aware of her surroundings, protective of my cards, cash, purse, etc. But I became a victim of an attempted scam yesterday. It happened at the flea market (liquidation sale) on Plank road at Harding in Baton Rouge yesterday. Normally I would pay for cash in these types of places but didn’t have enough on me for this video game system I was going to get for the shop. I asked if they took debit/credit cards and was told yes. I handed the man my card and he turned to walk away – I followed him – a few feet to the cash register. He sat my card down on the table by the cash register and said he had to get his boss to ring it up. He then tried to distract me not once but twice and when I turned my head to see what he was pointing to, I saw a flash out of the corner of my eye and whipped my head around to see his phone over my card. He had actually taken a picture of my debit card. I confronted him and he denied it. As I got louder he said “I was taking a picture of my friend.” I said, “what friend? Its only you and me here. You took a picture of my card.” I demanded to see his phone and he refused. I told him I was going to get the cops (there was an officer at the door). I looked up and saw my husband 20 feet away and hollered to him. About that time the salesman took off (I had my card now) and I told Craig to stop him. Long story short, things got physical, cops got involved, a crowd gathered, etc. but no one went to jail. The salesman had handed his phone to his boss who put it in his pocket. Then when the officer asked for his phone the boss reached in and pulled a phone out. Not sure if it was the one with my card on it or not. At this point I became very vocal (think American Pawn out of Detroit – where the crazy customer gets loud and escorted out). I let everyone know not to use their cards there because they were running a scam. A number of shoppers walked out with us. If I had not seen the flash I would have not been aware that he had taken a picture of my card. I had to have my card cancelled to protect myself. A couple of things I learned – I will not use a card in any of the small flea market type shops – which is a shame because I know not everyone at these places are criminals. I will not hand over my card to a sales person – if they don’t have a card reader there I will pay cash. The pictures below – the man with the red pants is the salesman – the police officer is going thru his phone (well the phone the boss pulled out) and the other picture is of the boss – who I believe is very much a part of the scam. The guy in the blue shirt in the background witnessed the events. He told me he saw the guy in the red pants deleting pictures when he first tried to get away before my husband “stopped” him from leaving.
Posted on: Mon, 08 Sep 2014 11:21:50 +0000
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