I have warned people before about this scam. But, unfortunately, it has happened again, so it is worth repeating.
Here is video footage and the story of how two people swapped a merchants EFTPOS terminal with a scam EFTPOS terminal that they controlled. It is worth studying what happened. See how this swap took these guys 10 seconds.
As these scam EFTPOS terminals are freely purchased online, they do not need to be a computer wizard to do this today.
It can cost the merchant a lot of money. EFTPOS suppliers view is that this is the merchant fault as they are supposed to look after the terminal. It actually states so in your contract.
Here are four tips to help stop this:
- Put a label on the EFTPOS terminal and write by hand your shops name on it. The worse the handwriting, the better. This makes it harder to swap as they need then to forge your label and signature, making your terminal a unique item.
- Make sure that your terminal is not easily accessible to strangers. For example, here, the terminal was available and *NOT* under any supervision.
- Make sure that it is clear that a camera is monitoring the area where the EFTPOS terminal is located. Few thieves will attempt something like this if they know it is under the camera.
-Whenever possible, have the terminal locked up.
