PANAMA CITY — The Bay County Sheriff’s Office is conducting an investigation into the fraudulent use of a person’s credit card information.
Investigators believe the victim’s card information was encoded on a blank card because the victim’s actual card was not stolen.
On March 1, a woman discovered her credit card information had been used without her knowledge or permission. A complaint was made and subsequent investigation revealed that a white male used the credit card information to conduct or attempt to conduct 11 transactions at Bay County businesses totaling $814.13, BCSO reported.
Because the victim still had her credit card in her possession, it is believed that the suspect encoded a blank card with the victim’s credit card information and then used the fraudulent card to conduct transactions. It was also discovered that the suspect used the victim’s credit card information along with the credit card information belonging to several other individuals to purchase pre-paid credit cards.
The suspect is described as a white male in his 30’s, with brown hair, and medium height and build. The suspect was last seen wearing a red, polo-style shirt, dark pants and a black cap.