Mpls. Restaurant Responds To Credit Card Fraud Claims
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- Customers of a Minneapolis restaurant say they have been overcharged thousands of dollars.
Since October, Linus Nyambu and others say the Blue Nile Restaurant has taken small amounts of money out of their accounts at a time -- which have added up to thousands in overdraws.
Nyambu says he and other African immigrants have looked at the Blue Nile on Franklin Avenue as a second home.
"It's a popular place for us," Nyambu said. "We've been coming here for a long time."
But he says if the restaurant keeps charging him the way it has been, he will be homeless.
"I went and checked my account. I found I'd been charged $3,000 in one, single day," Nyambu said.
That was on Oct. 26. Days later, another withdrawal by Blue Nile -- this time for $1,200.
"If I ate all the things it says I'd be dead. And if I drank all this I'd be in treatment right now," he said.
Nyambu says statements show dozens of small transactions adding up to one large amount, all on the same day. It also happened to customer Mohamed Yusuf Ali. He was charged $2,000 on one day.
Muqtar Said was also a victim. He says the restaurant took a few hundred dollars from him on one day.
"It's frustrating. I'm getting Social Security money and it's taking all my money so I cannot even pay my bills for that," Said said.
Bar manager Josiah Thompson says the charges are not intentional.
"We hate that's it's happening and we hate the way we found out," Thompson said.
Thompson agrees something does not add up. He believes the issue is with the credit card processor.
He does think many of the charges are valid, and that customers in the bar have not been getting charged for certain purchases over several months. Then, for some reason, Thompson says they all went through in October.
"It's hard to say who is at fault. We are still doing some investigative research on it," Thompson. "We just want to get everything right."
Nyambu and other customers say their previous purchases went through, and they do not recognize any of the recent charges.
Minneapolis police say they are aware of the situation at the Blue Nile and will investigate in the coming days.
