Restaurant owners are being warned to be vigilant as fraudsters attempt to target their customers in a new phone scam

A new scam is on the rise which targets restaurant owners and their customers, according to the latest data from Financial Fraud Action UK, a payments industry body. “Restaurant owners need to be alert," said Katy Worobec, director of the organisation. "Fraudsters can sound very professional – don’t be fooled. The scam is simple but a new twist on previous attempts to convince people to hand over their bank account details. A fraudster, posing as bank staff, phones a restaurant early on in the day and says that there is a problem with its card payments system. He tells them that due to this fault, the restaurant will have to redirect card payments to a number, which is then given to them by the fraudster. The fraudster, still purporting to be the bank, insists the restaurant staff will have to obtain their customer's security details to process any card payments. Later on in the day, when a customer finishes their meal and comes to pay, the restaurant calls the number the fraudster had provided. The scammer then asks to speak to the customer to go through their security questions. Once the fraudster has obtained a sufficient amount of security information from the customer, they then instruct the restaurant to put the transaction through.....Read more here