Credit card fraud

DEALERS are being warned that they could be targeted by credit card fraud after a noticeable increase in cloned American Express cards.

POLICE are appealing for help after a swathe of established regional salerooms were hit by a major credit card fraud last month. Victims are now recommending the adoption of a new protocol for regional auctioneers when conducting ‘cardholder not present’ credit card transactions.

A BANKRUPT Suffolk antiques dealer who went on the run to Bulgaria after swindling creditors in a £1.9m fraud has been jailed for ten years.

ANTIQUES shops in the West End of London are being warned to watch out for a man who has been stealing valuable works of art using cloned credit cards.

Ebay are to pilot a new feedback system in the UK in late February as part of what they say is a more proactive approach to issues of fraud and safety on the site.

THE importance of exercising due diligence has been driven home in the most painful way for a dealer, whose oversight has cost them £12,000.

PHONE calls to the Antiques Trade Gazette over the past two weeks make it clear that the trade is still being targeted by credit card fraudsters from Indonesia.

IN the wake of recent reports on credit card fraud emanating from Indonesia, dealer association LAPADA are advising members on how best to protect themselves.

A West Country ceramics dealer has asked us to warn the trade to beware of Internet orders from Indonesia. He recently received two such orders which made him very suspicious.

CREDIT card fraud is steeply on the increase, but dealers are finding that it is them and not the banks who are taking all the risk.

The Antiquarian Book Dealers Association have sent out a warning to dealers to be alert to a credit card scam that has already claimed more than $100,000 worth of items from the trade.

LONDON: THE trade are being warned about credit card cloning after several incidents in London in the past few months. In mid-January, a King’s Road gallery sold a French 19th Century bronze figure to a customer, and was paid with a credit card which, though authorised at the time, now appears to have been fraudulent.

USA: THE United States government is taking serious steps to beat Internet fraud and is consulting leading e-commerce figures on how to go about it.

UK: ANOTHER dealer has fallen foul of a credit card con only a month after the Antiques Trade Gazette warned the Trade about following correct security procedures during transactions.