Two men allegedly duped a cafe in Lockerbie with an 'overpayment' credit card scam when staff turned their backs. The incident happened at Just Be Bistro on September 15 at around 1:12pm.
Footage shows the pair walking into the premises and ordering a hot chocolate to takeaway. What should have been a £4.25 transaction ended up costing the cafe £425.
How the scam unfolded
Posting on Facebook, Just Be Bistro said: "They asked to pay by card. While our staff member turned away to prepare their drink, they took the card machine, manually entered stolen credit card details, and forced through a transaction for £425.
"When the receipt printed, our staff noticed the huge 'overpayment' and immediately apologised, offering to refund the whole amount. The men then presented a different physical card, which the £425 refund was placed onto.
"Sometime later, the actual owner of the stolen credit card understandably initiated a fraud chargeback, leaving our small business a hot chocolate and £425 out of pocket."
Owner's reaction
Owner Ryan Johnstone said staff didn't notice anything unusual until last week when the owner of the stolen card disputed the charges. The 36-year-old said: "He hands the card machine back and from my cashier's perspective it just looks like she has accidentally overcharged him. She panics.
"They went on their merry way and we didn't know anything about it. As soon as I saw the charge back I looked at the camera footage, and I knew straight away that we had been had.
"I am not that bothered by the money, I just don't like somebody having one up over us. For the girls' sake as well, they got scammed, I don't like that part of it."
When Mr Johnstone checked the footage he was horrified, and posted a screenshot of the incident on Facebook. He says this post 'blew up' with many other businesses reaching out to say they experienced the same.
Wider impact and next steps
He added: "We got some feedback from Facebook privately and we think there has been some more cases of this scam up and down the country. This is the first incident we have ever had and it happened on our one-year anniversary. That busted our celebration.
"I am quite savvy and I didn't expect to be hit myself."
Since Mr Johnstone is currently on holiday in Florida he has been unable to report the incident to police, but has a call scheduled for when he returns. He claims that a force in England noticed his Facebook post and believe they might be able to identify the men.
Mr Johnstone added: "I don't want to lose £400 but it is not the end of the world. We can always do better, but we are managing to pay the bills.
"I am hoping that they get charged and arrested and I will happily go to court and give evidence. We will have to wait and see. At the end of the day we should have been more careful I suppose. I have implemented some new policies so that it can't happen again."
