Archive for Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Manager thwarts attempt to scam Cugino's
Fraud suspected in $2,800 order
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A person attempted to charge about $2,800 on a credit card in what appears to be another attempted scam of a downtown Steamboat Springs restaurant.
Cugino's Pizzeria and Italian Restaurant Assistant Manager Jessica Kane received a call on Sunday during which the caller, through an intermediary at a phone service for the hearing impaired, attempted to order 150 pizzas, with lots of extras. To start, the caller asked Kane to charge an additional $850, to be sent via Western Union wire transfer, for a "warming truck" that would pick up the pies. The caller also offered a generous tip, for a total of about $2,800 to be charged on the card.
"As soon as they said Western Union, I knew it was shady," Kane said.
She stayed on the line long enough to get the information on the potentially stolen card, including the name and number.
"I just wanted to get the card, so I could get the card stopped," she said.
The caller reportedly would not tell Kane where she was to send the money or where the deliveries would be taken, until after she ran the credit card, which she declined to do.
The caller also wouldn't give her a phone number or any other information, only an e-mail address to send questions.
Kane hung up the phone once she had the card information and called Steamboat Springs Police Department officers, who are investigating the potential scam.
A similar order was placed with Mazzola's Italian Restaurant in June, in which a caller used a similar call-relay service to order food for 300 people, plus an extra $1,000 for a courier service.
Jeff Hubler, who owns Cugino's with his wife, Danielle, said he wasn't surprised Kane caught on to the act and that employees are not ever supposed to overcharge a credit card.

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