Fraudulent card use at petrol station?

gregg1

goater78 wrote: »

It wouldn't be MSE if some plonker didn't post a ridiculous example. You're right not reporting the petrol assistant will almost certainly lead to major terrorist attacks rocking the country.....

It's not ridiculous at all. The poster is absolutely not saying one will lead to the other and you know full well they are not saying that.

System

gregg1 wrote: »

So you would never report suspicious/criminal activity if it was happening right under your nose because "it's nothing to do with you"?

What a great attitude you have there!

You're muddying the argument again. This is more than likely not criminal activity. I accept it's suspicious however it's the garages choice whether they accept payment this way.

Worse case scenario the card was used fraudulently, the bank would inform the petrol station, the petrol station would consult the CCTV footage and then send the details to the police. The police will then deal with the matter. I see no scenario that requires the intervention of the OP.

VitaK

There are always other options than processing a none-secure payment from a costumer that is acting suspicious.

Lets face it, she was not the cardholder and she didn't know the PIN code.

System

I don't argue with that. I just wonder of its necessary to report it when it doesn't effect you.

I see some posts on the thread have gone:-)

Mindless_Clone

goater78 wrote: »

It's not actually a crime though is it? The OP witnessed a woman using her fiances card to pay for petrol. Is that illegal?

As I understand it you (as in the person the card is issued to) do not actually own the card; the bank that issues it does. Since in their conditions of use it states that only the card holder may use the card, the fianc!e, at the very least, is breaching the rules he signed up to on accepting the card.

Furthermore:

"Credit or debit card fraud is when an individual illegally uses another person's credit or debit card to pay for or purchase an item or service."

http://www.legalinfo.com/content/criminal-law/crime-overview-credit_debit-card-fraud.html

And since the bank did not give her permission to use it, and the person it was issued to has no authority to give permission to use it, she used it fraudulently.

So it is a crime, yes, albeit perhaps a fairly insignificant one if the woman was actually using it with her fiancee's knowledge. The fact she admitted it was not her card and the cashier accepted it anyway makes him complicit in fraud.

goater78 wrote: »

In the assistants defence the customer had already taken the fuel. It was therefore a case of taking payment from a dubious method or taking no payment at all.

In circumstances where customers have no valid method of payment, there are procedures. Usually some form of Unpaid Transaction form that has to be filled in and further proof of address provided etc. This usually gives the customer 7 days to return with payment. When I did the job, if they didn't come back in 7 days, we passed it on to a solicitor to chase payment and it got pretty expensive at that point. The result usually was that genuine people who forgot their cards would come back within 24 hours, but the ones who were either driving stolen vehicles or had fraudulent details would not. we lost a lot of money that way but the details went out on the local network and all petrol stations were notified. There's only so many times you can get away with doing that before you get caught out. I have to say, as an employee, you could pretty much tell the real from the chancers and we'd get security over when they turned up anyway.

kimminess

Either way I sent the petrol station an email. I don't mind if they laugh at me, at least I consider myself to have done the right thing in my mind.

Not worth arguing about, it's all done now.

Mindless_Clone

Glad to hear it OP.

goater78 wrote: »

Let's face it the company will do nothing.

Trust me, they will definitely do something about it, even if it's just to coach the cashier.

System

Mindless_Clone wrote: »

As I understand it you (as in the person the card is issued to) do not actually own the card; the bank that issues it does. Since in their conditions of use it states that only the card holder may use the card, the fianc!e, at the very least, is breaching the rules he signed up to on accepting the card.

Furthermore:

"Credit or debit card fraud is when an individual illegally uses another person's credit or debit card to pay for or purchase an item or service."

http://www.legalinfo.com/content/criminal-law/crime-overview-credit_debit-card-fraud.html

And since the bank did not give her permission to use it, and the person it was issued to has no authority to give permission to use it, she used it fraudulently.

So it is a crime, yes, albeit perhaps a fairly insignificant one if the woman was actually using it with her fiancee's knowledge. The fact she admitted it was not her card and the cashier accepted it anyway makes him complicit in fraud.

So just to clarify if I give my card to my OH and ask her to withdraw some money from the cash machine while I wait in the car. Then you believe that she is committing a crime and using the card fraudently?

You do come out with some tripe!

I would be interested to hear the response back from the petrol station to the OP's complaint.

I predict a polite brush off, with a vague reply where they just thank her and say they will investigate. I don't believe they will.

Mindless_Clone

*sigh*

Don't then, I don't really give a chuff if you do or not. I'm just eternally grateful there are folks that are more pedantic than me in this world.

kimminess

I was passive in the act, the action I took was 24 hours after the 'offence' took place.. That was an interesting case though, I liked Wikipedia's (Yes, I know...) line of "It was found however that an ordinary citizen is not under any duty to prevent an offence being committed and that failing to prevent it does not create liability as an accomplice."

Thank you for the alternate insight into the situation