Man Sues Strip Club Over Mysterious $50,000 Credit Card Bill

Strip clubs can be an alternate dimension where money vanishes at a faster rate than it does in the outside world. Or so we’ve been told… Ahem… Regardless, a man in Florida says there is no way he spent $50,000 on lap dances and warm cans of beer, and he’s willing to go to court to prove it.

The Tampa Tribune reports on the lawsuit filed by a man who admits he racked up around $600 worth of fun times at an area gentleman’s club back in March, but that he certainly didn’t spend the $50K the club charged to his credit card.

“There’s no way to spend that kind of money,” his attorney explains to the Tribune. “How many dances would it take before you run up $50,000 at $20 a dance?”

Well, that would be 2,500, not including tip.

The plaintiff says he tried to file a complaint with Bank of America but was told he couldn’t claim the charges were fraudulent since he admits he was at the bar at the time the charges were made.

The suit, which also lists a former bartender at the strip club as a defendant, is looking for the $50,000, plus interest, attorney fees and court costs.

Man sues strip club over $50,000 credit card bill [Tampa Tribune via Gizmodo]

Thanks to Anthony for the tip!


Edit Your Comment

  1. Joedragon says:

    likely some entered 50,000 when they where trying to enter 500.00

    • Mr. Spy says:

      That sounds like the most reasonable answer. I mean, if you see a transaction for $50,000 one night and nobody is doing a jig and rolling in a pile of money, it’s probably a mistake. Course, by not correcting it, they should be in deep trouble.

    • bhr says:

      But in that case wouldn’t the club just reverse it once the guy called?

      • bhr says:

        I only say that because there are no criminal charges filed here. If they knowingly kept that $ he would have been able to go to police and at least initiate fraud charges.

    • MeowMaximus says:

      Some clubs offer other “Services” that are unofficial. Still, unless this guy is the reincarnation of John Holmes, and was mainlining Viagra, its “hard” to see who this could occur.

  2. Chmeeee says:


    Well that’s a piss poor argument on their behalf. So if I admit I was at the grocery store yesterday and they charge me $50,000 for one cart full of groceries, I can’t claim fraudulent charges since I admit I was there?

    • George4478 says:

      I didn’t understand that part of his story. How did he “try to file a complaint?”

      When I had a dispute with BoA, I went to the website and filed the complaint on the “Dispute a credit card transaction” screen. One of the dispute options is “I authorized the transaction; however I was billed the wrong amount”.

      Nobody stopped me from filing it, nobody “told” me anything — I filed it and they responded via email, providing me a written record of the dispute resolution.

    • Kate Blue says:

      I would think the district attorney would be real interested in this. It sounds like outright theft.

    • normlspellingerror says:

      Yes, that is called a merchant dispute. That is what I’m wondering, why can’t he file a merchant dispute with his credit card company?

  3. Hi_Hello says:

    isn’t there a limit for a single charge on a credit card?

    I remember back in the day, my limit was around $2,500.

    • consumerd says:

      that’s what I kind of thought. At most the wife can put on hers is $300 max. I can go up to $10k (I have to call and verify first, or they hold the transaction and I have to login and hit “approve”) but that’s it. $50k I would like to know how they accomplished that!

      • Not Given says:

        We have $300 limit per day for debit + pin, $1500 limit if it is run as a credit. We were told if we needed to make a larger transaction we could call.

    • NeverLetMeDown2 says:

      Generally, no, if they’re convinced the charge isn’t fradulent. I’ve spend ~$20k in a day on a card.

    • I look at both sides of the story says:

      “isn’t there a limit for a single charge on a credit card?
      I remember back in the day, my limit was around $2,500.”

      I’ve put WAY more than $2,500 in a single transaction on a CC without any problems.

    • Robert Nagel says:

      I routinely charge over $20,000 to pay for company materials. The transactions go through without a hitch. (And I haven’t bought an airline ticket in years)

  4. hexx says:

    “Honey, I swear, I don’t know why there are charges from a strip club on our credit card.”

  5. wynterbourne says:

    This is why you only carry cash when you go somewhere sketchy.

    • regis-s says:

      Then you get rolled and everyone says you shouldn’t carry cash. Only plastic because the cc company will cover any fraudulent charges if something happens.

      • JEDIDIAH says:

        In other words: plan ahead.

        Although I haven’t been mugged since middle school. On the other hand I don’t present myself as a juicy target. Comes from growing up in the kind of neighborhood where you might want to arm yourself before going to the can.

        Helps to look like a cheap b*st*rd.

        • hoi-polloi says:

          I’d rather take the chance of getting from wherever I parked to a strip club with a few hundred in my pocket rather than using a card. I have an idea of how much I’m willing to spend, and I get that much cash in advance. I’ve sometimes left cards at home. This has the dual benefit of avoiding fraud and resisting any temptation to overspend.

    • Applekid says:

      Strip clubs are sketchy? It’s a place of business.

    • GitEmSteveDaveHatesChange says:

      Remember that big lotto winner who brought big cash to a strip club and it was stolen from his truck? yeah, bad idea.

  6. dolemite says:

    So he admits to racking up $600 instead of $50,000, but wants $50,000, plus fees.

    Shouldn’t that be $49,400?

    • Loias supports harsher punishments against corporations says:

      He gets more because of the inconvenience of having to fight fradulent charges in court.

    • longfeltwant says:

      Not really. He “admits that he racked up around $600…”, and the operative word is “around”. He has no idea how much he racked up, and now there is no record of it. All there is, is a record which he claims is fraudulent. So, he expects back the amount of the fraud; that seems fair. If the strip club can come up with a verifiable way to determine the correct bill, *then* they could charge him that amount.

  7. SirWired says:


    Hmmm… I missed the part of the FCBA where they said that was a valid reason for a bank to refuse a dispute. It’s time to file against the bank with the Feds.

  8. BATL says:

    I wonder what the card limit was….$50k is a pretty big number to put through, especially if that amount is significantly above the amounts typically charged to that card.

    • regis-s says:

      That’s what I was thinking. You’d think a $50,000.00 transaction would have fraud written all over it. It makes you wonder how the strip club was able to convince the cc company it was a legit charge.



    Bull. I’ve filed disputes before, and they always ask what *part* of the charge you’re disputing. Otherwise, you could stay in a hotel one night, be billed for a month, and be SOL because, hey, you were there!

  10. Scoobatz says:

    Wouldn’t the strip club have copies of his receipts? I don’t think it would take a lot of detective work to find out what happened. And, unless the club can prove that he spent $50,000 in one night (again, with receipts that he signed), I would think this is a fairly easy case for him to win.

    • Not Given says:

      They would have to claim he started a fire or something to charge that amount.

    • cowboyesfan says:

      The only time I charged, they made a photocopy of my license and ‘accidently’ charged me for the drinks at the table next to me.

    • dullard says:

      I agree. Where is the credit card receipt? Did OP look at the credit card receipt before signing it? Did he keep a copy?

  11. kcvaliant says:

    Well I have read about miami russian mob clubs where the girls drug you get you to buy outrageous drinks.

    Wonder if this is similar. Only reason why the club would fight it.

    A receipt would either show they are lying or show the club was scamming as in 5k bottles of CR. And 100 dolllar energy drinks.

    They said in the article I read most men are embarassed to come forward in these matters.

    • MarkFL says:

      Actually, this was on 20/20 a couple of weeks ago. They don’t just get the marks to buy drinks, but also jewelry and all sorts of other things. It’s a variation on a scam they run in Europe, where they actually threaten physical violence if the mark doesn’t cooperate — although that route is probably happening somewhere in the U.S., too.

  12. FooSchnickens - Full of SCAR says:

    See, this is why you never touch the girls.

  13. oldwiz65 says:

    and the CC people didn’t block it as a questionable charge? They block charges of less than $1,000 even if you call and tell them you are going to make a charge. You can call them and say “I am going to the Apple store and I am going to spend $700 on an iPad” and they say fine, but they also say the charge may be declined anyway. Bah. The computers at the CC are programmed by idiots.

  14. Robert Nagel says:

    A few years ago there ws an instance of a woman getting screwed by a merchant in Saudi Arabia when she bought a rug worth a few hundred dollars and they put through a charge for tens of thousands of dollars. Amex wouldn’t budge, she signed a receipt and didn’t get a copy. A lesson is to be learned.

  15. makoto says:

    There is actually a problem in Florida right now where foreign girls are being flown in by bar owners who are running a scam where the girls slip guys roofies and over-charge them for lap dances and drinks. I wouldn’t be surprised if this happened to this guy. It sounds like exactly what happened to several other people in the state. It also could just be that there are other issues, but it made me think of the recent thefts.

  16. buddyedgewood says:

    I take it that this guy never reads the news, wasn’t it only a few years ago that a guy lost a case against a strip club that charged an exorbinate about on his CC?

    About 10 years ago, I used a CC once in a strip club in Vegas to buy a single drink for myself, at the bar. The actual transaction wasn’t the problem. The problem came later when I discovered that the bartender used my CC info to secure his cable TV order, sign up for, and for various other small things before I notified the CC issuer that there was fraud. It’s a good thing too, the fraud dept guy told me those small charges were just to see how much they could get a way with before charging a big ticket item.

    Two lessons learned from this (and other’s misfortunes):

    1. Never, ever use a CC in a strip club.
    2. Always watch the charges to your CC (online) for small items that you don’t recognize.

  17. aleck says:

    There was a scam busted in Miami last year. Girls in strip clubs would get clients wasted, slip them some drugs and then rack up charges on the credit cards. They would get a cut from the club.

    • frank64 says:

      The banks could nip this in the bud by taking the patrons claims seriously. I know many credit card processors will not take strip clubs as customers. If the banks sided with the customers this would not happen. The strip clubs should be charged with fraud, and the banks should take out their terminals.