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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2017 07-31 Maplewood police seek help identifying fraud suspects MAPLEWOOD REVIEW Maplewood police seek help identifying fraud suspects Submitted by admin on Mon, 07/31/2017 - 10:31am Maplewood police are looking for help identifying these men suspected of credit card fraud. The two men, as seen on security video footage at the Toys“R”Us in Maplewood, used stolen credit card information. courtesy of Maplewood Police Department Maplewood police are seeking the public’s help in identifying two suspects in a credit card fraud case. The credit card information of a Maplewood resident was used for five recent fraudulent transactions, including one at the Toys“R”Us in Maplewood. Video surveillance from the store showed two men making the Toys“R”Us purchase, which totaled $219, according to Maplewood police Cmdr. Dave Kvam. Kvam added that the investigation is ongoing, and police can’t yet say if the suspects were involved with all five transactions. The four other fraudulent transactions were made in Stillwater, Oak Park Heights, White Bear Lake and Richfield, with one purchase totaling $240 and the others totaling only small amounts. “It’s difficult with the credit cards, sometimes, to tell where the breach took place,” Kvam said. He explained that in this case, the Maplewood resident still had possession of his credit card, so it wasn’t an obvious theft. Kvam added that in cases like this, victims sometimes have their credit card information stolen when they make a purchase and the employee running the transaction has time to write down information off the card. Kvam warns residents that the best way to protect yourself from this kind of fraud is by regularly watching your transaction history. “It’s easy to know if your card was taken if you left your purse in the car and the window was broken,” Kvam said. “It can slip by pretty easily if you have your card and have no reason to suspect \[your information was stolen\].” He added that in this case, the resident’s bank caught the fraudulent charges pretty quickly, but “it’s also a good idea to be proactive and keep an eye on that sort of thing yourself.” If fraudulent charges are found on your accounts, Kvam recommends first calling the card provider to stop the account, and then calling police. By reporting the card stolen, he said it could trigger a business to call police when the card is used next or, at the very least, it would stop additional transactions from occurring. If you are able to provide any information about the identity of the suspects in the image from Toys“R”Us security footage, contact the Maplewood Police Department at 651-249-2600 or Tip411.