A guitar shop owner in Adelaide is out of pocket by more than $20,000 after five guitars were purchased from his store using stolen credit cards.
Steve Salvi from Salvi's Fine Guitars said the five guitars were purchased over four days last week.
"We've just had a couple of guys come through with some fake cards and they've decided to take advantage of a well-natured shop assistant and walked out with a couple," Mr Salvi told ABC Radio Adelaide's Stacey Lee and Nikolai Beilharz.
"They came in on the first day and did an in-person transaction, and then on the subsequent days they've done phone orders, once they've got the confidence up with the staff.
"It's a bit of a drag, but these guys know what they're doing, there's a lot of it going on. Working in music shops there's always someone trying to scam you."
Mr Salvi said the subsequent guitars purchased over the phone were later picked up by a woman who claimed to be a "cousin" of the purchaser.
He said when he got to his shop and saw the irregularities in the sales, he became suspicious and went straight to police.
While he was sitting in the car park of the police station he received a phone call from a person who owned one of the stolen credit cards, confirming his suspicions.
He said thankfully once the guitars were reported, they showed up as having been sold to Cash Converters.
Mr Salvi hoped he would be reunited with the stolen guitars soon.
"I'm pretty out of pocket at the moment," he said.
"These were unique guitars ... the model of the scam is, buy something expensive, take it straight to Cashies and cash it in. That's how they roll, that's how they operate."
A spokesperson from SA Police confirmed they were investigating the "fraudulent purchase" of five guitars from the Thebarton store.
"The offence is alleged to have occurred on Saturday, March 25, when a person purchased five guitars using a fraudulent credit card," the spokesperson said.
"The investigation remains ongoing, anyone with information is asked to contact Crime Stoppers."
