Businesses lose thousands! Thieves exploit payment devices to get illegal refunds in Kent

KENT, Wash. — Three suspects in Kent have been stealing from businesses by tricking employees into issuing refunds after manually entering their card numbers.

Imagine you are an employee at a busy store and a customer comes to the register with a few things to purchase. The customer then tells you that they need to manually enter their credit card information because their “tap to pay” option isn’t working. They ask you to hand them the payment device because they don’t trust anyone with their card information. The suspects then quickly authorized a refund to their card for items they had not bought.

This is the trick many businesses in Kent told police happened to them.

One of the businesses told police they lost $500, while another store reported losing $1,500.

Police describe the suspects as three young black men who were last seen driving a 2006 gray BMW with Washington plates.

The suspects will act aggressively to keep cashier employees distracted.

Kent police advise employees to never hand over payment devices. Instead, they should offer to manually enter the information for customers or call the police if they feel threatened.

Anyone with information about the suspects can leave a tip at KPTTipLine@kentwa.gov or call the Kent PD Tip Line @ 253-856-5808.

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