New Restaurant Scammer Swindles Six Thousand Dollars  

Last month, we reported on Belize City resident Jemine Thurton, who scammed the popular Celebrity restaurant out of Three thousand dollars through fraudulent online transfers. Today, another restaurant Scam was exposed, but this time, in Belmopan. The unnamed resident allegedly conducted fraudulent bank transfers with Formosa, Wingstop and Chon Saan Palace, summing up to over six thousand dollars in food and drinks. The Chon Saan incident was resolved after the perpetrator’s father, a well-known businessman, cleared up his daughter’s outstanding bill. Lee Mark Chang, owner of Chon Saan Palace, says that that this has been an issue the restaurant industry has been grappling with for years.

 

Lee Mark Chang, Owner, Chon Saan Palace

“We have been touched before and we have omitted that type of payment outright. So there’s no more payment in terms of online transfers or stuff like that cause it does takes a couple of days if you transfer from one bank to the next bank, in order to see it, usually if you do from Belize bank to Belize bank account, then it’s almost immediate, but to avoid a headache, we have omitted all of that. I’ve learned recently that one of our branches has also been a victim of this and, but it has been a minimal and I’ve been made to understand that it has been paid back already.”

 

Isani Cayetano

“What is the process being used to defraud these restaurants? Do you know what system or how they go about doing this online?”

 

Lee Mark Chang

“There’s many of it and some of it maybe I should not speak about, but the photoshopping is the. Another one is when you get a hold of someone’s credit card, probably through theft or robbery. And there was once an incident where the person brought, actually brought the credit card to the restaurant, and they purchased food and alcoholic drinks. And in about half an hour, the police came with the owner, asking to see the surveillance. We showed them, and of course the person went again and used the same card at another restaurant location and he was told he was apprehended, the group of them were apprehended because of the stolen card. So they use it and then they go to swipe it at business establishments.”

 

Isani Cayetano

“I understand that perhaps in the B.P.O. sectors where perhaps these service agents get a hold of personal credit card information for customers that in some instances they do use those confidential information to transact business?”

 

Lee Mark Chang

“We have had our fair share of this stolen credit card information, yes. But it has been very minimal. It has winded down a lot right now. Of course, whenever a credit card transaction comes in through credit card and we suspect it, we usually call first to make sure that we have a ID number to fix on a person then we deliver the food. If not, we would just cancel the order and make sure that the credit card company refunds it.”

 

Isani Cayetano

“This has been going on for quite some time, but it doesn’t seem to be reported nearly enough. The only one that we recall fairly recently was the incident with Celebrity restaurant. Why isn’t this kind of crime being reported to police or legal action to prosecute these individuals are taken?”

 

Lee Mark Chang

“I believe that because the law is not stiff enough or probably there’s not enough regulation or law enforcement to deal with these type of white collar crimes. But I have done my share in terms of trying to minimize or try to catch the persons using these stolen credit cards and we have been mostly successful.”