BURLINGTON, Vt. -
Scammers are getting more and more creative. The newest one targets restaurants. The most recent victim is The Stones Lodge Restaurant in Bondville, Vermont. Fortunately, it didn't fall for the scam and we don't want you to either.
We've all heard about the grandma who gets the call from her "grandson" overseas, asking for money. Now, the new scam is large to-go orders, going after restaurants bottom line.
It's 10am and the Church Street Marketplace is already bustling. Restaurants are preparing for the day and say they're certain they wouldn't fall victim to the latest scam.
"I don't think anything like that would ever pass here," Church and Main Restaurant employee, Travis Greene said.
Winhall Police say this is what happens; a restaurant receives a call from someone placing a $1,500 to-go order, they want to charge it to a credit card and then, the caller asks the restaurant to add five hundred dollars to the bill and then wire it to a driver who will be picking up their food.
"It sounds ludicrous," Deputy Chief Andi Higbee from the Burlington Police Department said.
Police say in this new twist to credit card fraud, the food is never picked up and the phony driver ends up $500 richer.
"It's just kind of shocking," Anne McNeil of Sweetwaters restaurant said.
While most restaurants do take to-go orders, and often times aren't paid until the food is picked up, it hasn't been a concern because the to-go orders aren't ever $1,500.
"It could be just a salad, less than $15, it might be as much as $40," McNeil said. "We have some big checks sometimes, but not to-go," Greene added.
One other red flag in these cases. Police say scammers use a relay service for the hearing and speech impaired. It requires an operator to take the written message and relay the information to, in this case, the restaurant employee. Police say even this part could be fake, so you should gather as much information as possible before you report it to Police.
"Play the game a little bit and find out what information you can from these folks, call back numbers, email addresses, things like that," Chief Deputy Higbee said.
The Winhall Police Department was able to trace the call to a land line in New York City but no arrests have been made. So far, the restaurants on Church Street haven't received any calls like this, but again, say it would trigger a red flag.
