If you’re in a port in Croatia this season, be extra vigilant with your credit and debit cards due to a widespread card scam.
We received this information from one of our contacts at Standard Bank:
“Some bars and clubs in Croatia have a card scam going whereby the cardholder authorises a chip & PIN verified transaction for an amount, however in the background a much larger amount is being confirmed and debited. The cardholders normally do not get or take the receipt. We do not have any dispute rights on these transactions because they are all fully verified using the chip & PIN and the cardholder is not able to provide evidence of the original lower amount. This does not just effect Standard Bank clients, it’s all bank cards.
“They can take up to €4,000 or $4,000, as this is the daily point of sale transaction limit on our [Standard Bank] cards and it is not something we can reimburse if cardholders do not have a receipt of the lower amount. We suggest using cash in bars or insisting on a receipt and making sure they get one before handing over their card.
“The same happened to a lot of crew in Croatia last year, so they could be targeting the bars the crew go to and especially at this time of the season. The latest crew to get hit were in a bar in Trogir, but they [the scammers] are operating all over. ”
As a temporary measure, Standard Bank is reducing the total point of sale transaction clients can make in Croatia to EUR 300. It will also put a block on the bars where it knows fraudulent transactions have taken place.
If you are concerned about any of your transactions please contact Standard Bank directly here.
For further information on fraud prevention Standard bank has compiled a list of their top 10 fraud lists to look out for.
