***NEWS RELEASE***
The Montcalm County Sheriff’s Office has taken several complaints of frauds and attempted frauds at various convenience stores in the last two weeks.
The fraud consists of subjects attempting to purchase thousands of dollars of scratch off lottery tickets using credit cards. If the initial transaction is declined, the subjects start using credit card numbers they have stored on their cell phones and provide those numbers to the cashiers to run manually. Up to a dozen different numbers have been attempted during transactions. Most of the transactions end up being denied but some have gone through. One of the completed transactions was for $8,000.00.
There appears to be at least two different groups operating in our county currently. Yesterday, Sheriff’s Office detectives managed to identify three individuals from Akron, Ohio who are believed to be involved. Evidence was confiscated and is being analyzed. Smaller convenience stores seem to be the target with the attempts occurring near closing time.
The Sheriff’s Office is asking store personnel to positively identify, via a driver’s license or State ID card, anyone attempting to make large dollar amount purchases with credit cards. Additionally, store personnel should only use numbers presented on a credit card for large purchases and not manually key in numbers provided by the purchaser.
Any convenience stores that have experienced such transactions are asked to contact the Sheriff’s Office detective bureau.
The Michigan State Police has handled several of these fraud investigations as well.
The Sheriff’s Office continues to investigate these fraud complaints and is working with the Michigan State Police and their Fraud Investigative Unit.
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