Trouble Shooters: Using A Credit Card At A Fast Food Restaurant Can Be Risky

It seems so convenient. You just drive up to the restaurant window, place your order, hand over your credit card and you're back on the road in no time. However, in the short time between handing over your card and getting it back, your information could have been stolen. "You don't need a card, you just take that number and in this age we live in you can pretty much use it anywhere," Detective Bobby Herring, a Caddo Sheriffs Deputy, said.

It's a crime Herring investigates all too often; fast food employees stealing customers' credit card numbers and racking up massive charges. "She says she memorized the numbers then wrote them down later to purchase things," Herring said. He's talking about 26 year old Monicka Washington of Shreveport. Washington is suspected of stealing customers' credit card numbers by memorizing them ,then purchasing more than $10,000 worth of merchandise through a suspected accomplice who worked at a nearby Radio Shack. The victims were customers at the KFC on Mansfield Rd. However, this case is just one of many Herring and other Caddo-Shreveport white collar crimes detectives are working.

Customers at fast food restaurants can appear to be easy targets, because whether you pay at the drive through or inside, your card is often out of your sight. "A lot of times the machines they have to swipe the card's are located at the back of the restaurant," Herring said. In addition to memorizing your number, thieves can use a technique called scratching. "They'll place a piece of paper on top of your credit card, and rub a pencil over it really fast," Herring said, "then they have a copy of the number." You, the customer, get your card back with no idea that someone else has your number: everything they need to steal your money. The best thing to do is use cash. But, if you have to use plastic, use your credit card instead of your debit card. That way it will be easier to get your money back if anything happens.