Credit card fraud targeted

By Dan Nakaso
Advertiser Staff Writer

Skeptical sales associates took harder looks at credit cards flashed at Louis Vuitton in June and in three instances stopped thieves from making off with thousands of dollars worth of high-end merchandise.

Al Joaquin, special agent in charge of the Asia-Pacific Region Secret Service office in Honolulu, shows fake credit cards confiscated after the arrest last week of five Japanese nationals who shopped at high-end Honolulu stores. The arrests served as a reminder to local businesses to be vigilant about matching credit cards with an ID. Deborah Booker • The Honolulu Advertiser

It was part of an effort by Secret Service special agents who have been talking to merchants groups about high-quality, credit card forgeries that can be deterred by applying common sense.

"Almost always the cashier or sales associate has some contact with the credit card," said Al Joaquin, special agent in charge of the Asia-Pacific Region Secret Service office in Honolulu. "Most of the time they're just not paying attention."

Salesclerks just need to ask for identification to see if the names match, he said. In some cases, Joaquin said, criminals who have been questioned have even tried to pass off another forged credit card issued to yet a different person.

It's the same kind of advice that Gary Fujitani, senior vice president of First Hawaiian Bank, will give in October when he meets with the Retail Merchants of Hawai'i.

Salesclerks and cashiers can look for specific things, such as the quality of a credit card's hologram or whether the first four numbers matched the much smaller "bin" numbers printed nearby.

"A lot of times," Fujitani said, "it's a simple thing like matching the name on the card with an ID."

Last week's arrest was the second of its kind this year in Honolulu. It also resembled a ring the Secret Service broke up in Guam last month.

Information for the cards typically is stolen from the Internet or downloaded onto digital readers by unscrupulous waiters or salespeople, Joaquin said.

While Secret Service agents are tracking high-end thieves, Honolulu police worry about more prevalent low-end criminals with a different approach.

Some local crooks who don't have access to sophisticated forging equipment steal credit card statements out of mailboxes. They then have an authentic duplicate card mailed to their own address, said Lt. Patricia Tomasu of the Honolulu Police Department's financial fraud unit.

They tend to use the credit cards at what Tomasu calls "swipe and go" payment systems, such as at gas pumps, which don't use salesclerks.

"There's no one to check a signature or say, 'This name doesn't come anywhere close to you,' " Tomasu said. "A lot of the cases I see coming through are run through mini marts and gas stations. Kmart even has unmanned registers."

Thieves can avoid detection for a while by restricting themselves to several, smaller purchases, Tomasu said. But in some cases, they have let several friends fill up all of their cars at a single gas station, Tomasu said.

"The bulk of it is the low-end, everyday stuff that doesn't draw attention," she said.

So while banks and the Secret Service focus on common-sense checks for salesclerks, they still haven't figured out a way to double-check a gasoline purchase.

"If it's strictly a transaction where the point of sale terminal is not being monitored," Joaquin said, "there's really nothing you can do about it."

Companies can get more information about credit card fraud when Fujitani speaks at the Retail Merchants gathering.

Reach Dan Nakaso at dnakaso@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8085.