Police bust scam

Police have made four arrests - and recovered top-dollar purchases including furniture and a spa pool - after busting a highly-organised credit card scam affecting more than 100 bank customers.

The quartet have been charged with dishonestly using a document after allegedly spending hundreds of thousands of dollars with stolen credit card details from people in Auckland and Hamilton.

Detective Inspector James Robson of the Auckland Fraud Squad said the investigation was continuing and more people were likely to be charged.

"This has been going on for some time. They were arrested as a result of evidence that was gathered. We recovered some items of property including furniture, a spa pool and a safe," he said.

The fraudsters apparently bought the goods online or over the phone and send gofers to collect them - often in vans rented with the fraudulently-obtained details.

Because the transactions had been processed before the goods were picked up, the retailers simply handed over the goods.

Robson was pleased with the arrests and said officers from all across Auckland had worked on the investigation.

"At the end of the day, the magnitude of the offending took up quite a few resources. We are a particularly busy office and it's difficult at the best of times to investigate all complaints to the nth degree."

Robson said it was possible hundreds of card-holders had been affected.

"There is still a great deal of property that hasn't been recovered ... hundreds of thousands of dollars worth."

No new complaints had been filed since the Herald on Sunday published details of the scam on October 25.

"I'm not sure whether that is due to the publicity about the inquiry - but I suspect possibly it is," Robson said.

He said the scam was a timely reminder for retailers to make sure they were handling credit card transactions properly.

"If they are going to take transactions over the phone they need to check identification of people picking stuff up or ask to see the actual credit card. Otherwise they risked not being reimbursed.