An incident has left a local restaurant owner shaken, Migoto Sushi in downtown Seattle was targeted by two men who allegedly stole a full day’s worth of profits through a sophisticated scam involving payment machines. Owner John Nguyen is now urging fellow business owners to be vigilant and cautious when it comes to handling customer transactions.
The incident occurred on a Friday afternoon when the two men entered the restaurant and placed an order. As they prepared to pay, one of the men claimed he didn’t have a credit card but offered to enter a card number into the payment tablet at the register. “He said to the server, ‘Here, give me the tablet so I can put in the number for you because I remember it,’” Nguyen recalled. Trusting the customer, the server handed over the tablet, setting the stage for the scam.
Once in possession of the tablet, the men executed a quick maneuver that Nguyen described as a theft of technological finesse. “Once they put it in, one guy scans some kind of small chip into my device, and after that all the money is transferred to them, the whole day’s sale transferred to their Visa,” he explained. Within moments, the men completed the transaction and left the restaurant, claiming they had no money to pay for their meal.
The loss has been devastating for Nguyen and his team, who work tirelessly to maintain the restaurant’s success. “We work very hard; I want to let everyone know who has a business to be careful about these kinds of messes,” he said. The incident serves as a stark reminder of the vulnerabilities that small businesses face in an increasingly digital world.
Nguyen is advising other restaurant owners and retailers to adopt stricter protocols when it comes to payment transactions. “The warning is do not let anybody touch the device at your business. We trust the customer, so we let them do it, but now we’ve learned—you don’t know who is a good person and who is a bad person,” he cautioned. Local law enforcement has been alerted to the scam, and Nguyen hopes that sharing his story will help prevent similar incidents from occurring in the future. He encourages fellow business owners to remain vigilant, report suspicious behavior, and educate their staff about potential scams.
