Credit card fraud continuing at Tampa restaurants

Aaron Walker got paid on a Friday. But when he looked at his checking account balance that evening, he knew something was wrong. He had $67.

He sifted through his checking account transactions and learned he had been a victim of identity theft. Nearly $1,000 had been spent from his checking account at a Philadelphia convenience store, grocery store and Family Dollar. His account also was used at a BJ's Wholesale in Hollywood, Fla.

The debit card charges began to occur on Jan. 27 — a day after he spent $11.81 for a palomilla steak, yellow rice and black beans, Spanish bean soup and diet Coke at La Teresita Restaurant.

The Tribune reported Thursday that police are investigating numerous reports of customer credit and debit card account numbers being stolen after being used at several local restaurants, including La Teresita.

Walker said restaurants and other retailers need to take steps to protect customers.

"If they are taking credit cards, they need to be responsible for their transactions," said Walker, 35, a Tampa graphic designer.

La Teresita managers said problems last month were caused by a virus that attacked the computer software at La Teresita and other area restaurants. The problem had been addressed and resolved, said Chery Capdevila, a restaurant co-owner.

But La Teresita regular Lauri Bringgold says the problem hasn't been resolved.

She made a purchase at about 5 p.m. Wednesday at La Teresita's bakery. By 10 p.m., she was contacted by American Express saying two purchases had been made about 9 p.m. Wednesday at two Pennsylvania gas stations. Each purchase was for nearly $200, she said.

"They need to call their consultant back because it's not taken care of," said Bringgold, a Tampa commercial real estate consultant. "I'm hoping law enforcement could get to the bottom of this and help them find the criminal and find the source so they can return to business as usual," she said.

But Capedevila and a computer security expert she hired to help deal with the problem said those two problems almost certainly stemmed from transactions at other businesses, not at La Teresita.

Capadevila said her computer system has been clean since Jan. 31 after she contacted Tampa's Computer Doctors. She had a technician look at the restaurant's computer system again Thursday evening after a reporter contacted her about Bringgold's experience.

Dan Kaschel, a technician with the Computer Doctors, said information taken from debit or credit cards can't be "cloned" overnight. The illegal process takes at least a week, he said. "If the credit card was cloned yesterday, the information was gathered over a week ago," he said.

Kaschel said he checked the restaurant's computer system thoroughly and no information has been transmitted to an unknown external network since the security software was installed Jan. 31.

The new security software should prevent any future problems, he said.

Capdevila credits her customers for alerting her to the problems.

"Thank God our customers have trusted us and knew we weren't doing anything wrong," she said. "The first customer that called me, we took it very seriously.

"This has been very terrible," Capdevila said. "It has been very, very overwhelming. We take this very seriously."

The fraud has affected other Tampa businesses. Numerous readers contacted the Tribune after Thursday's story, relating accounts of people having their account information stolen in recent weeks after using credit or debit cards at area restaurants.

Shells Seafood on Dale Mabry Highway started receiving reports in June from customers who said they used their debit or credit cards at the restaurant, then began seeing charges at businesses they had never visited, said David Canady, a managing partner at the restaurant.

Canady contacted the Secret Service, and the problem seemed to go away, only to resurface in November. He contacted local law enforcement and credit card companies but didn't get much help, he said.

Finally, a computer technician in January was able to find the virus on the dining room computers.

The virus was transmitting information over the Internet to a server in Romania, Canady said.

The virus has been eliminated, and management runs virus scans periodically on its software, he said.

"Where it affects my business is guest confidence in my business," Canady said. "It hurts guest relations. We are as much the victim here as they are."

"This is organized crime," said Canady, who said he's had no more problems or complaints.

"It's cyber warfare now. There has to be some way we can combat this," Canady said.