New Debit Card Scam Pops Up in Walla Walla, Rips of Businesses
A new debit card scam has popped up in Walla Walla, with police cautioning vendors and businesses.
Unlike ID scams that we've seen or card skimmers, this scam involves fake PIN numbers used to purchase items. From the Walla Walla police department:
"Subjects will enter a business and gather goods, usually several hundred dollars worth, and attempt to pay with a debit card. The debit card is from an online bank, with the card holder's name on it and appear to be legitimate. When the subject hands the card to the cashier, they inform the cashier that they have recently been a victim of identity theft and that they need to enter a special PIN into the machine when the card is ran, otherwise it will deny the transaction. What happens when they enter this PIN, the transaction appears as if it goes through normally, but then later find that there were no funds in the purchaser's account and then the business is liable for the loss of goods."
Walla Walla police say if a business comes across any such type of situation, they should notify authorities immediately at the time of the transaction. In Walla Walla, call (509)-527-1960, in Tri-Cities call (509)-628-0333.