Scams & Frauds Costs Cardholders
Issuers of credit and debit cards in Costa Rica are warning it's customers to be wary of fraud following a series of card scams that have left their clients with millions of colones (thousands of dollars) in losses.

Visitors have to also be wary of the many scams.

The Banco de Costa Rica, has warned its cardholders that credit and debit card fraud is most common in gas stations, where attendants have been known to swipe cards more than once, using additional credit card vouchers to replace cash.

The Banco de Costa Rica like the other state and private banks have a fraud department  and there is an insurance that deals with fraudulent charges, but there is no insurance for fraudulent charges against debit cards, though some private banks have insurance coverage at an additional cost.

The responsibility to detect fraud lies in the hands of the businesses that have Credomatic or ATH machines to accept the charges. The business is responsible to check the identification of the cardholder and that the signatures match.

But many businesses do not do so and very few ask for identification.

Perhaps the biggest scam perpetrated on customers is by restaurant waiters, who like gasoline station attendants, take the card to from the view of the customer to get authorization.

The waiter or attendant then returns with a voucher for the customer to sign, having had the opportunity to swipe the card more than once and then forge the signature. The waiter or attendant then exchanges the voucher for cash with the awareness of the business owner.

In retail and grocery stores, the card is usually processed in front of the customer at the check out line. However, in restaurants and gasoline stations that is almost an impossibility, unless the customer wants to make the effort to accompany the waiter or attendant to the cash register.

It is in those instances that both Credomatic, who is the largest credit processor and issuer of credit cards and ATH ,which operates a network of ATM machines and credit card processing, are looking into portable systems where the card processing machine is brought to the customer, and the transaction is processed in full view of the cardholder.

In the meantime, while the card issuers look for solutions, it is recommended that recommend that the customer never lose sight of their card.  Not even for a moment.