The Salmon Arm RCMP is warning local businesses to use extra caution when accepting credit card payments as a scammer is working the city.

On March 12, police received a report that a woman went to a local restaurant where she manually entered a credit card number to pay and "mistakenly" tipped $100. She then asked for $80 cash back on the $15 bill for her meal. Restaurant staff, however, refused to give cash and correctly refunded the credit card back. 

The woman then bought a gift card in the amount of $300, which was also later refunded back to the credit card. 

"Salmon Arm RCMP are advising local businesses to follow proper credit card usage policy," Const. Andrew Hodges said in a media release. "Allowing customers to manually enter credit card information, especially for a credit card that is not on their person, is highly suspicious and enables the use of stolen credit card numbers."

He added that all credit cards should have the owner's name on the card that can be cross checked against a second piece of identification.

"Customers asking for large cash refunds should be treated as highly suspicious, and should only refunded back to the credit card."