The Lake Havasu Police Department is warning residents to be aware of a recent increase in credit card fraud at the same time the Maricopa County Sheriff Department announced that Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s credit-card information was stolen and used to make a $300 transaction at a Chicago store this weekend.
The Lake Havasu City Police Department issued their warning due to the fact that it has taken dozens of credit card fraud reports from resident about fraudulent transactions that are occurring outside of the area in the past couple of weeks.
According to the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office, the purchase made with Arpaio’s credit was made at a grocery store and it was unclear whether Arpaio’s credit card was stolen or if the transaction was made by another means
The Department says that residents can take a proactive approach to reducing the amount of fraudulent activity that occurs by diligently monitoring their account activity and immediately reporting suspicious transactions to their respective banking institutions. With the influx of this fraudulent activity, the Lake Havasu City Police Department believes that local businesses may have unknowingly had their computer systems “hacked” providing criminals access to customer information.
Typically, once criminals obtain a person’s credit card number they are able to create a new card and then either use or sell it. It is often seen that a smaller denomination transaction will be completed to “test” the card and then the larger transactions will occur soon after. If a person is able to catch the fraudulent transaction quickly, by frequently monitoring account activity, the transaction should be reported to their bank so the card number can be cancelled immediately. Additional information on crime trends can be found at the Lake Havasu City Police Department’s website www.lhcpd.com