From Hattiesburg, Mississippi:
They handed a credit card with no financial backing to the clerk which when swiped was rejected by the cash register’s computer. The suspects then informed the clerk that this rejection was expected and to contact the credit card company by phone to receive a payment approval confirmation code.

It should be obvious how this was a scam, the same person who provided the flawed credentials provided the method to verify them (the phone number). Predictably the person at the phone number was an accomplice who vouched for the credit card and the suspect made off with $8000 worth of merchandise.

Moral of the story: don’t trust the source of data to vouch for it.

source, via Schneier on Security