A South Australian burger joint has slammed greedy food thieves claiming it had been targeted by a series of fraudulent online orders, leaving the business more than $1000 out of pocket.
Burgertec’s business manager Kosta Bizilis said several of its Adelaide stores had received large online orders allegedly placed using stolen credit cards, fake names and fake numbers.
The business called out the behaviour on social media reminding customers “we’re not McDonald’s. We’re not Hungry Jack’s”.
“We’re a South Australian business, run by South Australian families, employing local people and serving our communities,” the business wrote.
“Every dollar lost comes directly out of the pockets of hardworking local families. It’s money that could be going towards our staff, our stores and keeping the business we love running.
“This isn’t someone asking for help. This is greed. This is theft. And it’s not okay.”
The owners claimed 15 fraudulent incidents at the Munno Para store since May 30 – when they first changed point-of-sale system providers.
“Since switching providers, we’ve been experiencing them at least once or twice a month,” Mr Bizilis told The Advertiser.
In the most recent incident, the business lost a total of $400 from two separate deceptive orders, bringing the entire losses for this year to around $1000.
“It’s direct profit that we’ve lost, and we’re also losing the cost of the food, it’s not great,” the 24-year-old said.
But Mr Bizilis suspects fraudulent orders had been placed before May, so he could not accurately estimate how frequently it occurs and how much money the company had lost in total.
He said the transactions appear legitimate at the time of order but the business later receives customer payment disputes and ultimately has to pay back the money.
“When these orders come through, it can be in the middle of a really busy service,” he said.
“We’re not thinking that these payments are going to be disputed later or that the customer isn’t legitimate and genuinely trying to support our business.
“Some of these disputes don’t even come through to us until months after the order, which obviously makes it super hard to track.”
In a bid to combat the fraudulent orders, the business has introduced extra security checks for online orders.
Those measures include asking customers to verify their identify and present the card used for payment before the order is handed over to the customer.
“We’ve also increased our verification processes through our POS provider,” he said.
“There’s now an extra step in the verification process, either through a bank notification or a one-time code.
“We’ll probably also have to start training our staff to flag orders that might look suspicious.”
Mr Bizilis said the fraudulent orders could be driven by thieves who prey on smaller businesses that “don’t have adequate infrastructure to prevent that sort of fraud”.
“It makes us a bit wary and disappointed that this is happening to us,” he said.
“We’re not a big company. We’re trying to make things work as best as we can in the current climate, and it’s not always easy.
“Stuff like this just makes it a lot harder.”
In a public message to customers, the business encouraged customers dealing with hardship to speak to staff, writing “we’d much rather help someone who’s doing it tough than see anyone go hungry”.
Burgertec operates five stores across Adelaide at Christies Beach, Glenelg, Munno Para, Paradise and Torrensville.
