A Toronto restaurant caught two men swapping their point-of-sale (POS) machine, and the owner is now warning other local businesses about the scam.
Ramona’s Kitchen shared a video last week on social media showing two men entering into their Leaside location at 1608 Bayview Ave. and posing as customers, while discreetly switching the restaurant’s POS machine with an alleged stolen one.
In the video, while one man is speaking with the worker at the front desk, the other man quickly grabs the POS machine, puts it into his jacket and places a different POS on the counter before leaving the establishment.
@nowtoronto A #Toronto #restaurant caught two men swapping their point-of-sale machine, and the owner is now warning other local businesses about the #scam. @ramonaskitchenca ♬ original sound – Now Toronto
According to Ramona’s Kitchen owner Carlo Calucci, the suspects had already come into the store 15 minutes prior to the incident, but left after seeing other customers at the shop.
They then came back and one person allegedly distracted the front desk employee with questions, while the other came in and swapped the machines. After the swap, the first suspect left the establishment after deciding not to buy anything.
Fortunately, the owner quickly realized the machine had been replaced after workers encountered issues processing debit transactions.
“My staff tried to use the debit card machine, and they saw there’s a code on it that they’re not familiar with. So, they called me…Twenty minutes later, I came to the shop. As soon as I looked at the machine, I knew the machine was stolen,” he told Now Toronto on Monday.
Calucci then contacted his POS machine provider Clover, which confirmed that the machine had been swapped for a stolen one. The suspects had also allegedly ran four reimbursement transactions right under the machine’s $500 limit, stealing almost $2,500.
The restaurant owner says that the reimbursement loss plus the $800 he will have to pay for a new POS machine will take a significant toll on the small business.
“I just don’t know how they got into the refund mode, because we have a password for it, so not everybody can get in. And I own the password, so it’s not [like even] the staff knew about the password,” he said.
Calucci has already reported the case to police, but said he hasn’t gotten an update on the investigation yet.
There appears to be a rise in thieves targeting POS machines in Toronto, as other local businesses have also been speaking out about similar issues.
Earlier this month, some businesses located in the Beaches area reported incidents of overriding their POS machines’ reimbursement system, losing thousands of dollars to scams.
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Due to the recent incident, Ramona’s Kitchen has adopted new protocols, such as keeping the machine away from clients’ reach and hiding it during the evening. The restaurant has also added an identifiable sticker into the new machine, so they can easily spot if it has been switched.
The owner is now urging other businesses to stay extra vigilant about their POS machines to avoid similar issues.
“I mean, they gave us a device that was stolen maybe two weeks before from another establishment. So, now they’re doing the same thing with [others], and they should be vigilant,” he said.
“I hope it never happens to another business in Toronto or anywhere, because this is not something that’s going to be insured and you don’t want to lose it from your pocket.”
