BUFFALO, N.Y. (WKBW) — There is a warning that could help you protect your bank account especially during the holidays, as credit card fraud has been on the rise in recent years.
According to WalletHub, last year, U.S. consumers and financial institutions lost $13,341,988,000 to credit and debit card fraud.
Victims of fraud in New York State alone, lost $14,979,202 due to fraud, which is about $14,571 per victim.
7 News spoke with a woman who said she lost hundreds of dollars to credit card fraud recently, just by parking in downtown Buffalo.
"At first I was sick to my stomach. I am pretty good with paying my bills on time and having a good credit score. That was the first thing I thought, that everything I worked hard for is gone,” Patrice Williams said.
Lockport resident Patrice Williams got a notification Wednesday morning stating she was being charged $525 for a reoccurring membership.
It is a gut punch, considering she had been unknowingly scammed in small increments within the last 18 days.
Williams added, “I don't have that membership. I called the number and as soon as I was connected, I can tell I was on an answering service."
Williams said the person on the other line was asking her a lot of personal questions, her gut feeling told her to hang up.
Williams said, “I called my credit card company to make sure that my card was okay. I immediately found out it wasn't."
That is when when she realized there had been multiple charges on her credit card, some going for $50 a pop for digital gaming and music.
Williams said, “That's something that I wouldn't be purchasing."
As she started to piece together how and when this happened with her bank, it all pointed to one night in Buffalo.
Her bank told her some purchases started small with just $2.50 withdrawals, which is a scammers way of testing the account holder to see if they are paying attention before they make larger purchases.
Williams said, “They followed it back to November 26th where she had scanned a QR code for Prime {Premium} Parking when I went to the Disco down in Buffalo. I guess when I scanned that, it must have been some type of scan on that QR code."
Buffalo's World's Largest Disco took place Saturday, Nov. 25.
Williams told Channel 7 she parked at premium parking lot located right across the hyatt hotel on Pearl and Huron Street.
It is anybody's worst nightmare, considering we are heading into the holidays.
Williams said, "I just felt really violated and angry."
Premium Parking is a New Orleans based company.
7 News’ Pheben Kassahun reached out to Premium's local market president Patrick Phillips who is located in Buffalo.
He sent this statement via email saying:
I have not been advised of credit card issues (by any customer) on November 25th nor the eighteen (18) days between then and now. It would be odd that the incident would be linked to our POS when there have been zero reports by any other customers. Feel free to share my email with the customer so that she can reach out to me directly.
QR stands for "quick response".
It has become much more common in restaurants and ads.
The FBI suggests how to protect yourself from QR code scams:
- Do not scan a randomly found QR code.
- Be suspicious if, after scanning a QR code, the site asks for a password or login info.
- Do not scan QR codes received in emails or text messages unless you know they are legitimate. Call the sender to confirm.
- Some scammers are physically pasting bogus codes over legitimate ones. If it looks as though a code has been tampered with, don't use it. Same thing with legitimate ads you pick up or get in the mail.
- The also suggests inspecting ATMs, pos terminals and other card readers before using them.
- Anything with a loose, crooked or damaged card reader is a sign that it has been tampered with.
- Pulling at the edges of the keypad before entering your pin is also a good rule of thumb.
It is a hard pill to swallow for Williams, as we approach the holidays, but she is counting her blessings, knowing her bank account is safe, and her credit card money will be replaced.
Williams said, “I’m glad I used my credit card instead of my debit card because my credit card company was really good at it. They flagged it, they stopped it. I'm not going to be held liable for those charges right now. It's just a really big inconvenience right before Christmas."
She explained she is going to start checking her card on a daily basis instead of a monthly basis.
She canceled all of her credit cards and checked her other bank accounts which are okay.
NOTE: On Thursday, Dec. 14 a Premium Parking spokesperson sent new information after investigating its payment kiosk. It states that after further investigation, the company found no signs of tampering. The quote reads in part:
"Please know that we take these matters very seriously. As the customer indicated that she attended an event on 11/25, we surmise that she may have attended the “Worlds Largest Disco” at the Convention Center. Following last evening’s correspondence, we sent a team of supervisors out to inspect all kiosks within the general vicinity of the Convention Center. We inspect our payment kiosks on a regular basis (standard protocol) but given the information available, we acted immediately. Fortunately, we found no signs of tampering. With this morning’s daylight, the same team set out to inspect our QR codes. Like the kiosks, inspections of the QR codes are performed on a regular basis though the nature of the situation called for an immediate response. We are glad to report that we did not observe any tampering of the QR images. We are still hopeful that the customer reaches out directly as we do have some basic follow-up questions that would assist in completing our investigation. Thanks again for bringing this matter to our attention."
Pat Phillips
Market President, Buffalo
