Strip club scam

bluelass

stator wrote: »

Why? Who cares? If you don't like this thread, don't post. The paranoid see trolls everywhere. I prefer to act in good faith, if I make a post in a thread that is fake I'm no worse off and I don't care, so why get worked up?

I thought trolls were hairy creatureswho live under bridges?:rotfl:

[Deleted User]

Burnz0 wrote: »

Me thinks you need to make a stronger case for what you are insinuating

Naw, I've got better things to do...

Newme2014

Hi, just a thought, you may have already thought if this, but have you searched for the club reviews or 'strip club X scam' etc and seen if anyone else has been scammed?

Burnz0

the club got back to me after a third, slightly less friendly chaser email.
They are going to check the till receipts and cctv so it'll be interesting to see what excuse they come up with. It did get me thinking though that they could put anything through e.g. bought an expensive bottle of champagne for a girl and there's no way I could prove anything. My only saving grace is that they need to justify why the amounts kept changing e.g. two amounts 500+ different 1 minute apart... Unless they are clever and tie all the amounts back to champagne/drink prices etc rather than just random numbers based on what they think they can get away with at that point in time??

racing_blue

I once bought a small bunch of flowers at a motorway service station, paid by debit card. It was £9.99 but £9099 was charged to my card. This was on a Sunday, first thing I know about it was a call on Monday from my bank saying "did you know you are several thousand pounds overdrawn?"

I just explained exactly what had happened, and I guess they must have checked it out & agreed, because the problem went away very quickly. Whether scam or accident I will never know.

Except annoyingly, at the end of the month I got slapped with an unauthorised overdraft charge. This was refunded in the end as as well, but it took longer to sort.

Never been in a strip club though, and not likely to, that would make me so uncomfortable!

pinnit2014

Moneyineptitude wrote: »

Naw, I've got better things to do...

Obviously you dont.

Burnz0

an update: the bank have outright refused to do anything about it, citing that since I still have the card and my pin was entered it must have either been me, or someone I knowingly gave the card to and was therefore negligent. I've opened up an appeal against it but they are refusing to let me speak to the fraud team so I'm not sure how they are going to do any further investigation without any additional knowledge. Interestingly, it took them two days of thorough investigation to come to their first decision - I know for a fact they didn't speak to the police (I gave them the crime reference) and im fairly sure they didn't speak to the merchant.
My credit card company have opened a dispute but again are being particularly unhelpful. I offered the crime reference and other information and they weren't interested so i'm not expecting any better response.
I also contacted the merchant (the club). The manager responded with cctv images of me at the card machine for the two transactions that went through successfully. Apparently I paid for half hour, then literally 32 minutes after that I paid for a further hour - although the manager can't confirm what I paid/the price agreed. Apparently the fee is negotiated with the dancer and this is relayed to the barman to ring through the till. The dancer "withdraws" when the customer is paying etc etc.
I found out today that the transaction that the cc card declined was due to a pin blocked (so im not entirely sure why they sent messages and missed calls regarding fraudulent activity). This would sort of tally up with my vague memory of being told the pin failed so I gave another card. The second transaction, on my debit card for the same amount, went through successfully - which I hate to admit looks almost legit?
However, my only saving grace, or at least I think it could be, is the proximity of cancelled/declined transactions for wildly different sums. If the barman is not "privy to the negotiation" as Im told, presumably every time the fee changed this would require a new negotiation? Therefore, it seems unusual that I could agree a fee, input my pin at 3:58 for £1800 and then decide to cancel that transaction, renegotiate to £1400 and then re-enter my pin at 3:59 - all this within a minute? Also, and im not sure if my bank or cc company will give any weight to this, it seems strange that a club would accept such large amounts of money two minutes before they were due to close - again though, they might just say that was agreed with the dancer, its my fault if the club was about to close?
The other small/large point is that the time on the cctv doesn't match the time on the receipt or the times that have been confirmed by my bank and credit card company - they are both out by 8 or 9 minutes. Again, this might be just a problem with their camera but when multiple transactions are going through in the space of 15 minutes i'd think this might have some significance? In both cctv images I can clearly be seen to have a beer right next to me. Obviously I could have paid for these separately with cash but it seems quite plausible that these transactions would in fact me at the time I was trying to buy the beer that is seen on the cctv.
The last point is that a cctv image (with an incorrect time) of me entering my pin doesn't really prove anything other than that I used the card machine. The club are refusing to give me receipts and since they are not privy to the negotiations can't confirm what was agreed - yet strangely they can confirm that I got what I paid for.


On closer inspection as much as the whole thing seems like a scam to me and I've definitely been ripped off I think I might struggle to recoup the costs on this one. If the dancers can legitimately charge what they like/agree with the customer and it is legitimate that they are using the clubs machine to take payment then it is going to be impossible to ever prove that what I agreed was not what was charged. I know for a fact that one of the transactions was cancelled (not declined) when my friend came over after suspecting something fishy was going on (me, drunk, surrounded by dancers at the bar). When he saw the amount - on the till or machine we don't know - he said to the barman "he doesn't know what he's doing, don't charge him that/cancel it etc" He then said to me what are you paying that for and I said im not in a surprised manner etc suggesting I definitely didn't have a clue what was actually being put through on the card. BUT, on the flipside, the club can just say you decided that was too much and cancelled - and I don't really know how I can prove otherwise?

chattychappy

Oh dear, I do wish I had something more useful to say. Certainly this sorry tale has got to be worth escalating to the FOS once you're exhausted bank/cc procedures. These places are often dependant on getting their licenses renewed. Personally I'd threaten the manager that unless they take it more seriously, you'll take it up with the local council, particularly if you live in the area. (I knew a councillor who was on a planning sub-committee who was always looking for an excuse to get these places closed down.)

BTW in the case of a credit card (or a debit card being used where there is an overdraft), the issuer cannot hold you liable (beyond £50) if somebody else uses your card even if you have been negligent. Although they may provide for this in the T+Cs, it is unenforceable unless you have been fraudulent. The onus is on them to prove that you authorised the transaction. If they think that that transaction may have been as a result of usage by a third party and cannot prove collusion by you (rather than mere negligence) then they must refund.

SailorSam

I hope you're not married. If you are your wife must be giving you hell.

maas

Burnz0 wrote: »

On closer inspection as much as the whole thing seems like a scam to me and I've definitely been ripped off I think I might struggle to recoup the costs on this one. If the dancers can legitimately charge what they like/agree with the customer and it is legitimate that they are using the clubs machine to take payment then it is going to be impossible to ever prove that what I agreed was not what was charged.

I know a girl who works in a club and she says the girls work for themselves (like freelance). They pay a fee at the start of the night (say £100) and then they keep all the money they earn (so they have to earn at least the fee before they make a profit). In those clubs there's no "dance money" going through the till, no way to pay on card for dances etc they just take cash. They can negotiate, but there's no way a customer can go the bar and pay for a dance on plastic. The way it works in the club you went to is completely different.

If the girls negotiate with the customer and the barman can simply type in "£1800 dances with Mary" on the till and then you put your card and in enter your pin then its gonna be very hard to prove. She must have been top drawer :rotfl:

It probably is a scam, although most of what is written is just conjecture. Its a warning for all us if we're buying drinks on card in bar/hotel/club make sure you double check the amount.