The Chop House on Waring involved in fraud scheme – Eagle News Online

The owner of The Chop House on Waring was arrested last week after discovering she had scammed customers, credit card companies and vendors.

According to the DeWitt Police Department, investigators received a complaint in April from a Chop House customer who said his credit card was falsely charged by the restaurant at 200 Waring Road. This customer had also made it known that he believed it was part of an ongoing fraud scheme committed by the steakhouse based on what he had heard from friends and read on online message boards.

The police department later interviewed several customers who also said they received additional charges from the restaurant beyond the original cost of their meals.

Police said most of those customers said they tried to get the money back, but the owner, DeWitt resident Sharon McCarthy, received various apologies. These customers ultimately had to seek reimbursement through litigation with their credit card companies.

After reviewing bank records, investigators learned that McCarthy would double or falsely overbill customers. After receiving the deposited money from the credit card processors into her corporate bank accounts, she would have withdrawn the money within a short period of time so that all chargebacks would be rejected for lack of funds.

McCarthy apparently used multiple business names to set up accounts with multiple credit card processors after each ended up suspending their accounts once they received rejection of multiple chargeback attempts.

The DeWitt Police Department said it had received business records showing McCarthy, 65, fraudulently obtained approximately $ 100,000 in cash and property.

However, some subpoena files are still pending, and the ministry predicts that there are more victims of this scheme who are not yet aware of the fees charged to their cards or have not contested them, the theft would therefore have an even greater scope. .

McCarthy was arrested on October 8 and charged with second degree robbery, four counts of third degree robbery, fourth degree robbery and two counts of first degree fraud scheme. She was taken to the Onondaga County Justice Center pending arraignment.