The waitress in the story below must have thought she did one heck of a job if she felt she “deserved” $5,000 in tips. Ladies and Gentlemen, if you dont’ have credit protection (and not from your credit card company), you should get it, you should also make sure your business takes credit cards from a reputable processor who will help you if an employee becomes scum.

Even though this story is not “local”, it does happen locally, it has happened twice to me over the years. Fortunantly both restaurants went out of business quickly.

Every time a credit card leaves the hands of a patron, an opportunity for ID theft and credit card fraud is created. CATS eliminates the tableside security gap by allowing patrons to swipe their credit card right at the table.

A woman of Port Richey, Florida was arrested along with two others in connection to a credit card skimming scheme.

Kathryn Shana’e Perez, 25, who worked at an eatery known as Mugs N Jugs, used the credit card skimmer from May 30th to June 23rd on at least nine different customers. The skimmer used by Perez was given to her by her cousin, Brandon Quillen, 25, who used the stolen information to make new credit cards. Quillen then gave the new cards to his ex-girlfriend to make purchases at Radio Shack and Walmart, totaling over $5,000 in merchandise. Perez told Pasco County Sheriff’s Office detective John Suess that the customers whose information she stole deserved it because they were bad tippers. All three have been arrested and face multiple charges, including fraudulent use of a credit card.