Toy shop loses almost £3,000 worth of goods after fraudulent sale
Watch the full report by ITV Meridian's Mel Bloor
The owners of a toy shop in Oxfordshire are warning other businesses to be on their guard after cloned debit cards were used to buy almost £3,000 worth of goods.
The incident happened at Toy Planet in Wantage last week.
Police are now investigating but the shop fears it may not be able to claim the money back because a signature was taken instead of chip and pin.
Last Tuesday, two men came into the shop and purchased a variety of items including vintage collectables, switch consoles and Lego sets, with a total value of £2,900.
Steve Taylor, Managing Director, Toy Planet says he had a phone call 30 minutes after, from one of the cardholders to say two card payments had been made through the shop and that he wasn't actually there to physically do the sale.
Steve says they now understand it was a cloned card.
CCTV of the men who made the purchase has now been passed on to the police who are investigating.
Tom Popple, Financial Director, Toy Planet says it's not unusual for the company to take signatures because it's still the standard with some types of card and foreign banks.
He says: "I guess we failed to realise I guess because it was an English bank it should have been chip and pin, whereas the card machine asked for a signature. We took the signatures, checked them and it all matched."
Tom Poppel, Financial Director, Toy Planet:
As a result of the fraud, Toy Planet has had to introduce an in store sale to help drive up revenue.
The owners hope by sharing their story, other businesses will be more careful when dealing with credit card payments.