Watch CBS News

Police: Troy Restaurant Employees Targeted In Gift Card Scam

(CBS DETROIT) - The Troy Police Department is warning employees of scams targeting restaurant employees.

Police say an incident took place at Five Guys and Ocean Prime where employees were scammed into buying gift cards.

The one at Five Guys happened Nov. 15.

An employee spoke with an unknown subject who informed her that General Manager of the store was stealing money from the tax withholding account.

The employee was instructed to gather all the available cash from the store and purchase prepaid debit cards with Walmart, in which she did.

Police say $2,164 was placed on five debit cards and the employee took photographs of the front and back of the cards which she sent to the caller.

When she returned to the business, she realized she had been scammed and informed the chief financial officer.

Police say the gift cards needed to be registered online and hadn't been, so Walmart may have been able to stop the transfer of funds in time.

The other incident occurred at Ocean Prime Restaurant on Oct. 30. Police say a server/supervisor received a phone call from a subject identifying himself as "David Miller", the president of the company who advised the employee that the General Manager at the business was going to be fired.

The victim was instructed to take $5,000 of the restaurant's money and purchase gift cards which he did.

He was then instructed to provide pictures of the serial numbers to the cards and send them to the caller which he did as well. The employee then realized later that he had been scammed.

SCAM ALERT: If you work in a restaurant, please check out these incidents targeting restaurant employees. Five Guys,...

Posted by Troy Police Department - Troy, Michigan on Wednesday, November 20, 2019

© 2019 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

View CBS News In
CBS News App Open
Chrome Safari Continue
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.