Cary boutique hit by second organized crime ring in a year

Now, the owner says she's being targeted again. This time, it's a fraud scheme the FBI says is hitting businesses across eight states – including North Carolina.

She gets suspicious calls from people wanting to place orders for fashion bags – some of them $5,000 a piece – along with other high-end merchandise.

"We're getting calls from Miami, mostly, and it's daily," says Nicole Denny, who owns J'Adore Boutique.

In many cases when she calls the numbers back, they're disconnected.

She's recently lost about $30,000 in merchandise through fraudulent credit card purchases.

"Unfortunately, I think all the promotion online and having an online store, I became a target, and I'm not the only one."

To protect herself, she has been forced to shut down her online store and no longer take orders on the phone.

"It's terrible for us. We eat the cost on the credit card company's end. We're also victimized," she says.

What happens, she says, is once the credit card company learns the card was stolen – or fraudulent – it debits the purchase amount from her account, leaving her without both merchandise and money.

"Our insurance does not cover that sort of robbery," she says. "It covers in-store robbery, but not the credit card theft kind. So small businesses - we are hit with this."

On December 1, her store was hit with this: Security video shows, in the pre-dawn hours, two people breaking the front-door window, running behind a counter and loading up on about 30 handbags.

Denny figures she lost up to $40,000 dollars worth of items. Police have not made an arrest.

Now the FBI in Charlotte says thieves are using stolen credit card numbers to make big-ticket purchases over the phone. The items are picked up by drivers and taken to other states, where they're re-sold.

"I educated myself on good business practices using credit cards," she says. "Looking for signature, calling the phone number on the back."

Denny now requires an ID with any credit card purchase in her boutique.

"It feels like, as a small business owner, we're always the one eating the cost," she says.

The FBI says more than 100 businesses in North Carolina and 7 other southeastern states have been targeted, from furniture stores to appliance stores. They believe there are additional victims and are working with local law enforcement agencies.