Financial headache for customer after credit card was posted online

Kinston, LENOIR COUNTY — A cafe customer faced thousands of dollars in unauthorized charges on April 30 after an employee posted the customer's credit card to social media.

Rhonda Deaver is a regular at Smith’s Cafe in Kinston. She said she would eat there after her weekly doctor’s appointment.

Last Tuesday she dined in. As she was on her way home, her bank representative called her. They alerted her she left her credit card. She turned around and headed back to the cafe.

When she arrived, she said the employee told her they tried to find her by taking photos of the card’s front and back side then posting them to a Kinston Facebook group. She said the initial post did not block out her credit card numbers. “I couldn't believe it they did that, but I was sick thinking I might be responsible for all those charges,” said Rhonda.

Meredith Raford of the Better Business Bureau said no one should post a credit card or identification online to find a person. She said even blocking out the numbers to post it is still a threat. “I would be worried about people being able to reverse that somehow,” she said.

Rhonda said she must dispute over 2,000 dollars of charges. “... A whole lot of declines, but a whole lot that went through,” she said. She expressed this incident hurt her financially. “I’m on a fixed income. There’s not like there’s extra money every month to cover those bills someone else charged on my card,” she said.

The owner of Smith’s Cafe declined to comment.

Radford said the Better Business Bureau Website is a tool for more information on consumer protection and ways to file complaints.