NC woman hit with charges after restaurant posts her credit card online

KINSTON, N.C. — A North Carolina woman said she’s managing a financial headache after she left her credit card at a restaurant.

Rhonda Deaver is a regular at Smith’s Cafe in Kinston. Last week, she accidentally left her credit card behind after paying.

“I turned around and came right back,” Deaver said.

While Deaver quickly realized her mistake, she said the restaurant posted a photo of the card on social media — with her full card number visible — prompting a number of charges.

Attempting to find her, an employee of the cafe took photos of the card front and back then posted them to a Kinston Facebook group.

“I couldn’t believe that they did that, but I might be responsible for all those charges,” she said.

Meredith Radford of the Better Business Bureau said posting photos of credit cards online isn’t safe, even if the poster blocks the numbers.

“You definitely should not post the credit card online,” Radford said. “I would be worried about people being able to reverse that somehow. And even if it’s to find the person, it’s easy enough to cancel your credit card and get a new one with your company. It’s not worth it.”

Deaver said her family immediately called her when they saw the post but it was too late. Over $2,000 in charges hit her account.

“It had been used a whole lot,” she said. “[There were] a whole lot of declines but a whole lot that went through. I live on a fixed income, and there’s not extra money every month to cover those bills.”

Deaver’s bank closed the account, but she said she’s still in the process of disputing charges.

The owner of Smith’s Cafe said he has no comment.