Of all the ways we use aluminum foil, you'd never expect someone to turn it into a tool for credit card fraud. Nevertheless, some criminals in Kansas City have discovered that covering satellites with aluminum foil can help them spend unlimited amounts of money on stolen credit cards.
A number of businesses have satellites on their roofs that communicate with credit card processing centers. These centers let businesses know if someone has reached his card limit or has a card with suspicious charges on it. Thus, by blocking the satellite, the crooks prevent the stores from stopping their unlawful purchases.
The thieves in Kansas City are mainly targeting small businesses with the aluminum foil because businesses with large volume transactions are more likely to catch on to the problem. In one of the known incidents of foil wrapping, a thief used a fraudulent credit card to buy $1,665 worth of cigarettes from a neighborhood business.
Kansas City police have shared images of their discovery with other police departments to ensure this problem doesn't spread quickly. However, it is safe to assume that the small handful of thieves here are not the only ones to discover this simple, yet effective, scamming technique.