Brooklyn's "Chef Dan" Arrested for Credit Card Identity Theft

This is any credit (or debit) card user's worst nightmare: Dan Kaufman, who manages Blue Pig ice cream, Oven pizza, Busy Chef and Wine Bar in Brooklyn Heights, was arrested for taking $25,000 from customers' credit cards. According to the Post, Kaufman would take "credit card slips from Wine Bar and Oven, and then ran them through again at his Busy Chef stores and an outlet on Court Street, pocketing the dough." Kaufman surrendered yesterday and Brooklyn Heights Blog reports the charges include various counts of identity theft and grand larceny. And remember: ALWAYS check your credit card statements.

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By Jen Chung in News on July 18, 2008 10:46 AM

Comments [rss]

Fast Credit Card

This is the great blog, I'm reading them for a while,
thanks for the new posts!

buzychefblowz

yeah, this asswipe charged me $1,008 for a piece of lasagna. i went in and asked him to take care of it, which they did. then, two months later, my bank informed me that busy chef's bank had claimed that the charge was legitimate, and their bank was contesting the 'charge back.'

i went in and yelled at them until they took care of it. it definitely seemed very shady. their accountant was a completely worthless bitch. these people are scum.

NOFEARBRUCE

I am sure that it wasn't just $25,000.00. If he has been doing this for years, it could be well over six figures. I signed up with shieldsafe.com to make sure that I don't become an identity theft victim. They are law enforcement pros and guarntee the protection with $1,000,000.00.

They should throw the book and the pots and pans at him.

NannyState

It only got up to $25,000 before someone noticed and he got caught. What a fool for running it up so high on his customers, a few dollars here or there would have kept the scam going for months, possibly years and the charges against him would be misdemeanors. Either way, he'll do his time, easily come up with restitution, and guess what? He'll move back to Ohio and open another restaurant.

Jen Chung

Some transactions were as high as $7,000. I guess what I'm trying to say is there's no reason, given that credit cards offer online statements, etc., that you can't monitor your credit card usage very carefully.

Spirit of 76

$1500 each? Well, this is why Jen says you should check your statements. You just never know when a $1500 charge will just slip past without you noticing.

PBRK

The $25k is from only 24 transactions- people were getting billed $1500 after having a pizza.

So is this type of fraud now commonplace? Looking over the threads on this it seems to be a dirty little secret among the industry.

woodendesigner

This guy needs to be made an extreme example of.

AvenueHebrew

Is this why the prices at BusyChef are so low? They charge you the rest when you're not looking?

ed_Extinct

this happens a lot at gas stations. i have had hundreds stolen from gas stations around new york state... i called my bank and they reimbursed me immediately and then did an investigation which turned up that the gas stations were guilty.

i check my accounts frequently for this stuff...

Jake Dobkin

yeah, $25K is just puzzling, especially stealing it on credit cards like that-- because you know you're going to get caught pretty quick. sounds like there's a bigger story here that hasn't been written about yet.

Spirit of 76

That's just stupid. $25k is not worth jail time. If you can steal six figures or more and take off for Barbados, I can understand the impulse. But a paltry $25k?