Police tell students to watch for rise in credit card frauds

By Amanda Hickey
Staff Writer

Since the fall semester, there have been five cases of financial card fraud.

If a financial card, whether it’s a debit card, ATM card, check card or credit card, is stolen the crime could be either a felony or a misdemeanor.

If a purse is stolen and the perpetrator finds a card in it and uses it, the crime could be considered a misdemeanor if less than $500 is spent. If a card is stolen out of a purse for the purpose of using it, it is a felony.

If more than $500 is spent, it is also a felony, according to Detective Ed Locklear.

Locklear has suggestions as to how a student can prevent their card from being stolen.

“It’s not a good idea to use it at a fast food restaurant. In two of the cases, that’s how the person got the card number. If you don’t have to, don’t carry it with you at all times; keep it locked up somewhere,” said Locklear.

In two other cases, the card was stolen from lockers in the gym while the students were in the pool.

“If they’re going to a swim class or a class in the gym, I would lock [your wallet or card] in the trunk of your vehicle or in your dorm room,” said Locklear.

Locking a financial card or wallet in the trunk of the vehicle is suggested because it keeps it from being visible. This way, someone will not see the card or wallet on a seat or on the console of the car. Locklear said that if he owned a pickup truck, he would push the seat back and place his wallet under there in order to prevent it from being visible.

“If a person is walking by with the intent of committing a crime, it’d invite them. Get it out of plain view is what I’m saying,” said Locklear.

The UNCP Bookstore has a plan to avoid financial card fraud.

In order to make sure that students are using their own financial card, cashiers are required to request a picture ID and make sure that the names match on the ID and card, according to manager Karen Swiney.

“If that ID didn’t match the name on the card, you wouldn’t be able to use it,” said Swiney.

However students are able to use their parent’s credit or debit card, if their parent calls the bookstore.

We have parents that call us or come in and talk to me, and we’ll call them when [the students] get in line. We don’t save any [card] numbers here for students; we used to a long time ago, but we discontinued that because of fraud. Now, they have to call and give us the address and name on the card and give us their permission to use it. And we match that up to their ID,” said Swiney.