LONDON, Ontario - Police in the Canadian province of Ontario are alerting citizens to be careful when making debit-card purchases after one purchase led to the theft of a debit card.
Shaun William Carson, 18, of Tilbury, Ontario, has been charged with three counts of theft. He will appear in a Chatham, Ontario, court on Aug. 15 to answer the charges.
Carson allegedly stole a debit card from a customer at a service center on July 16. The customer handed the card over for processing. While he was punching in his PIN number, the card was switched with a fake card and wrapped inside the receipt.
The customer discovered the switch later in the day, when two unauthorized withdrawals had already been made from his account.
According to the London Free Press, this is not the first alleged debit-card scam incident in Ontario. In September of 2000, 11 people were charged following a police investigation into the theft of more than $1 million (CAN) from 500 service center customers in the Toronto area.
