01/09/2025
The week before last I dodged a dodgy booking 👀💸
The guest wanted to pay by credit card, asked me to split payments, and pushed me to “just process it quickly and confirm 100% paid up front.” I can manually key in credit card details and have payment confirmed immediately. Something didn’t feel right, so I called my EFTPOS terminal provider. They said if the c/c no. is incorrect the transaction will not go through and I am at no risk. 🚩
I tried the first credit card and it worked. NZD $7,900:
✅ payment successful
✅ second credit card a while later and payment declined
✅ trusted my gut, emailed the ‘guest’
… and a short time later I received a phone call from BNZ FRAUD SQUAD
Last week the ‘guest’ vanished and today I realised I’d just avoided a money laundering scam. The $7,900 has gone back to who it was stolen from and I luckily didn’t fall into the trap of refunding the money back into a bank account of the scammer’s choice.
👉 If something feels off, it usually is. Protect your business first.
