The accused is identified as 24 year old Sharron Laverne Parrish Jr who was charged with tricking sales clerks from various Apple retail stores. The man had successfully convinced the clerks to accept the override code of a fake credit card which enabled him to bypass declined sales and walk away quietly with premium Apple products.
To pull off his act together, Parrish would try to purchase new products that would reach a total bill of more than $7000. Upon payment, he hands over his purported credit card and acts surprised when told that it is denied. Then he pretends to call his bank to confirm that he had enough funds. He gets a code from the bank and gives it to the sales clerk. The clerk punches in the code which overrides the earlier denied access, authorizing a so-called "forced sale."
In the US, a rejected card because of insufficient funds can still enable the card owner to go through with the transaction by simply punching in a manual override code. While the code can be made up of several combination of digits and an attempt to make a smart guesswork on the combination are not relevant, it is important to remember that any number sequence will be accepted by an EFTPOS terminal.
"It does not actually matter what code the merchant types into the terminal," stated by the US Attorney's Office located in New Jersey. "Any combination of digits will override the denial."
It was obvious that the apprehended suspect in this case knew the loophole in the system and took advantage of it. He perfectly knew that the override codes mean absolutely nothing. As long as the code has the correct number of digits, it is enough to override a denial.
Furthermore, the scammer didn't allow the cashier to call his bank and check. Instead, he used his own phone and acted like he was talking to someone from his bank.
Store clerks who were proven to have entered fake override codes would also be hooked for the scammed purchased products. "Apple - not the financial institution - suffered the loss as a result of this fraudulent transaction," said Secret Service Special Agent Bryan Halliwell. This is because Apple employees overrode the declination of the bank and went on with the transaction, ignoring bank's instructions.
Program manager for the Americas Karisse Hendrick says that businesses need to evaluate their options when deciding on how to please a customer and how to measure liability. He says, "There are very creative bad guys who are always going to be looking for the easy way out and can be very convincing even in person."
