Photo: Castanet File Photo

Shuswap businesses are being advised to be extra cautious when accepting credit card payments.

Salmon Arm Mounties released a statement cautioning local businesses about an uptick in credit card fraud in the area.

“Police have received one report on March 12 that a woman attended a local restaurant and manually entered a credit card number, and tipped $100 mistakenly then asked for $80 cash back on a $15 meal,” explained Const. Andrew Hodges of the Salmon Arm RCMP.

“The restaurant staff refused and correctly refunded the credit card back.”

Then, the woman purchased a $300 gift card which was later refunded back to the card.

Police said local businesses need to be strict about following proper credit card usage procedures in order to fight this potential fraud.

They said customers should not be allowed to manually enter credit card information, especially for a card that is not on their person. Hodges characterized this behaviour as suspicious as it enables the use of stolen credit card numbers.

Since credit cards should have the owner’s name on the card, they can be cross checked against a second piece of identification.

Police also advised businesses to be suspicious of customers asking for large cash refunds. Instead, businesses should only provide refunds back to the credit card that was charged.