Oakwood Police are warning people to be wary of online pizza discounts that are too good to be true. The warning comes after a suspect took to Twitter victimizing no less than five parties, including a resident and business in Oakwood.
The scam involves a suspect offering highly discounted prices for pizza and other food from companies such as Domino's, Pizza Hut, Papa Johns, Chipotle and Wing Stop, according to Sgt. Danny Sridej.
The scammer uses his Twitter profile to offer a large amount of food for a low price, such as $10.00, to be paid via PayPal. The value of food items offered is approximately $52.00, according to Sridej.
Through the transaction, the suspect obtains the victim's personal information and places an actual delivery order on their behalf. He uses stolen credit card numbers to pay for the food, according to Sridej.
"As a result of the scam, the scam artist profits $10.00 and leaves the unsuspecting person with the possibility of being arrested and charged with identity theft, credit card fraud and
theft by deception," Sridej said.
The case that brought the scam to light locally came Tuesday. A credit card fraud victim in Arizona called the Domino's located on Mundy Mill Road to dispute the charges made on her card during a Monday order, according to Sridej. The order was scheduled for delivery to a 19-year-old college student in Oakwood the next day, he said.
"(The 19-year-old) already had two previous deliveries to his apartment, so on the third try he said, 'Well, it's (delivery) coming,' so he didn't think anything about it," Sridej said.
The two previous credit card scam victims, from Flordia and Wisconsin, also called Domino's, but employees thought it was an email hacking situation and told victims the company was not liable. The third order raised red flags, according to Sridej, and Domino's called police.
Investigators initially believed the student was the identity thief.
"It was supposed to deliver yesterday (Tuesday) at about three o-clock in the afternoon, and Oakwood Police went ahead and we did a sting on it and delivered an empty box of Domino's to the student, and pretty much that's how we found out it was a scam," Sridej said.
The student had saved all of his correspondence with the suspect via Twitter, according to Sridej, saving him a trip to jail.
Authorities believe the scammer is operating elsewhere in the county.
Sridej's advice, only order food directly through restaurants or their official websites. He also said legitimate food discounts are a lot more conservative.
"You know as well as I do, you don't get 52 dollars worth of food for ten bucks from a restaurant."
