The Crime Prevention Officer of Garda Síochána Laois Offaly is urging Laois retailers to be alert of a money card scam.
Sargent Graham Kavanagh also wants to make staff aware of the scam that involves a customer requesting a high value top up for a mobile phone or prepaid money cards.
He said: “Fraudster will ask for a prepaid top up money voucher such as ‘SWIRL CARD’, 3V, 3MONEY prepaid card for a high value usually.
“They will then proceed to pay with details of stolen credit cards that they have and they will insist that they enter the card number on your terminal keypad and not use the chip and pin.
“Or, they may tender cash and decide that they no longer want to proceed having photographed the voucher and leaving.
“An Garda Síochána urge all retailers to NEVER under any circumstance allow anyone to KEY IN a credit card number.
“Remind your staff. Contactless payment, or Chip and Pin Cards only as a a keyed in number will not be honoured by your bank.”
