US: Indian Students In Movie Tickets Chargeback Fraud

An alleged chargeback fraud on Indian movies in Kansas City came to light. B & B Theaters based in Kansas City is investigating alleged chargeback fraud.

As big as $250,000 was filed for Chargeback in 2022. The reports emerge that the fraud amount is much bigger than that and it is not just limited to Kansas City theaters.

What is Chargeback?

When a customer buys tickets with a Credit card, watches the movie, and then calls the bank the next day to report that his credit card was lost/stolen/compromised. The person’s complaint demands the transactions made on the card to be marked illegal and the Credit card provider demands the retailer to refund the disputed amount.

Noticing a large number of chargeback reports, the B & B Theaters have approached the Kansas City Police department to investigate the fraud. A close study of these transactions revealed that their theater in Overland Park of Kansas City has incurred about $150,000 in chargebacks this year and other locations in Morrisville have about $100,000 in chargebacks.

Reportedly, these tickets were mostly bought in groups of 7 and more. It is heard that these fraudulent acts are done by fresh graduates and students residing in Kansas city and other places. Needless to say that these chargeback frauds are by Indians. The fresh graduates who have been with the consultancies in the said cities are allegedly involved.

The reports had it that the KC Police department is tracking all transactions with the IP addresses they are made from and of course the credit card information used to book the tickets and chargebacks. If the allegations prove to be true, the involved people will have to face felony charges based on financial fraud and cybercrime laws.

There are further reports that similar incidents reported in Atlanta, where the theater owner caught the person picking tickets on camera and reportedly gave a chance to withdraw the chargeback complaint to avoid consequences.

Here is the reported email from the theater owner to the person who picked the tickets, ‘Email from theatres to customer who committed fraud:

We received a chargeback on the following ticket purchases, as apparently you told the credit card processor that you didn’t authorize this charge. We have you on camera in the theater, and we have a copy of the drivers license of one of the people in your group. See attached. We also have you on camera doing this before, and you are stealing hundreds of dollars from us. I’ve blind copied the movie distributor on this email, as he is considering publishing your info as someone that continues to defraud businesses. Before we send this info to the police, l’m giving you the opportunity to correct this with the credit card company or come by the theater and pay us what you owe. And lastly, you are not welcome in our facility ever again. We work really hard to provide an entertaining service to people, and you are stealing from a family owned business. Super disappointing that you will ruin this for others, as we will no longer be able to show these movies if this kind of behavior continues. Below is the drivers license used to pick up tickets’. The mail also has the person’s driving licence attached.

Not just the B & B Theaters in Kansas City, there have been numerous reports coming up from many locations in the US and other theater chains are looking deeper into this fraud.