Scam artist

[Jester]

He looks at his money. Says something about not realizing he gave me a fifty. He needs it to pay someone. I refuse to open my register per corporate rules. He buys a lighter. Gives me fifty dollars, plus the cost of a lighter. He then tells me instead of a fifty dollar bill, he wants one hundred dollars back.

Two things I noticed about this, one obvious, one maybe not so.

The more obvious of the two is this: he made a purchase with a fifty dollar bill, then wanted the fifty dollar bill back. So he gave you another fifty dollars in other currency, plus the cost of his next purchase, so that you could open the register. Assuming for ease of this conversation that he had exact change for his second purchase, the only thing he should have gotten from you was his original fifty dollar bill. But, since he has now, in total, given you $100 in currency, he demands a $100 bill, even though he is only due the fifty. There is a reason these guys talk quickly, as said earlier. If I don't miss my mark, your drawer was short by pretty much fifty bucks.

The maybe not so obvious thing is this...he said he needed the original fifty back because he had to pay someone. So he gave you fifty dollars in other currency. Um....if he had to pay someone else, does it MATTER what denominations he uses, as long as it adds up to what he owes them? No, it doesn't. If Bob owes me fifty dollars, I am not going to give him hell for two 20's and a 10 instead of a fifty. (5,000 pennies would be another story, but I am just guessing that most scam artists are not walking around with a heavy sack of those, let alone trying to con someone with them.) Once again, it is fast talking that sounds good on the surface when dealing with rapid fire BS, but the heart of it is just absolute smoke and mirrors, nothing solid.

Don't feel bad. This guy knows what he is doing, which is why he gets away with it. The only time I have been scammed out of any sizable amount of money, I did it myself. A guest's bill was $25, and they wrote me out a $100 traveler's cheque. I gave them $75 in change, and they went on their way with nary a word. I then handed the traveler's cheque over to the bartender, and they gave me back....fifty bucks.

ME: "Hey, what's this?"
BT: "The fifty bucks for your traveler's cheque."
ME: "That was a $100 cheque."
BT: "No, it was a fifty."
ME: "No, I am quite sure it was a hundred."
BT: [goes and checks the drawer] "Jester, this is the only traveler's cheque I have in this drawer, and it is the one you gave me, and it is for fifty bucks."
ME: [light dawning] "Oh, shit!"

Yes, folks, you got it....ol' Jester here actually paid some tourists for the pleasure of serving them lunch. I was a bit miffed at them for not saying anything, but then, they very well may have just pocketed the change and not really looked at it, as many people do.

Since then, needless to say, I make a point of looking intently at any traveler's cheque I am handed.

[Barefootgirl]

The easiest thing to do, if you ever get another one of these, as soon as they start with their patter is to void the whole transaction, shut the till and start again.

A lot of supermarkets here have a little clip for the bills on the front of the till, so the assistant puts the bills she/he has received there, offers the change and THEN puts the originally tendered money in the till. This stops people saying "I gave you a twenty and you only gave me change for a ten...", because the assistant can point to the ten RIGHT THERE in front of her.

[Canarr]

I've actually picked up the habit of stating the size of the bill when paying with a larger one, since a McD's employee once almost (unintentionally) scammed me out of 10 Euro.

I paid with a 20 (total was 4.whatever) and he gave me back 5.something - change for a 10. When I informed him that I'd paid with a 20, he said no, it was a 10. I insisted, got my missing 10 and my food except for one item which he said he'd get to me.

Sat down, ate my food, waited a while for the last bit... he came up some 10 minutes later, apologized and said I was right and sorry for the delay. Gave me my burger and a free coke for the waiting.

Still, made me a bit more careful for the future.

[AforElephant]

The easiest thing to do, if you ever get another one of these, as soon as they start with their patter is to void the whole transaction, shut the till and start again.

A lot of supermarkets here have a little clip for the bills on the front of the till, so the assistant puts the bills she/he has received there, offers the change and THEN puts the originally tendered money in the till. This stops people saying "I gave you a twenty and you only gave me change for a ten...", because the assistant can point to the ten RIGHT THERE in front of her.

Yep, that's the thing. I tell my salespeople to keep the bills tendered in by the client in one hand and hand over the change with the other, only putting the money tendered in the till after the client has checked their change.

The headache we have is counterfeit money. Again, the detector is on top of the counter so that the client can see what we are doing. Usually when they get caught out they say something "But I just got that from the ATM!!" or something like that.

[blaubent]

I got the report back today. The register was $62 short. Nine of that happened to be as a result of an earlier shift. The assistant manager's wife let me look at the paper work and pointed everything else. I don't think she was allowed to let me look at it, but, yet, she knew I was a little nervous about how much I gave the guy back.

The main store manager isn't exactly happy that I got scammed. I told her it happened way too fast and that I am not exactly trained in spotting scam artist. Told her that I thought he was a legit customer. Left it at that.

[Customer Beating Robot]

Next time that happens just direct them to customer service or if that isn't an option direct them the nearest bank or offer to get a manager for them. They will leave.

Don't feel bad it's obviously worked before and will work again so you aren't the only one.

I agree. Scam artists target the "weak" not that you are. I used to be very weak and shy and would pretty much do what anyone told me. However, after dealing with the public for years, I realized that if you are push over, you will get targeted every time.

Next time, do as everyone says and just direct him to customer service. True, when you are young, like I was, you don't ever want to make the customer mad. However, learn to make the customer mad when needed. Nothing you can do about. Making a customer mad won't get you fired, it won't ruin your life and it won't burn down your house.

[Reyneth]

I've actually picked up the habit of stating the size of the bill when paying with a larger one, since a McD's employee once almost (unintentionally) scammed me out of 10 Euro.

I learned to do that at my first job "Ok, that's $5.65......out of ten?" Helps you remember because you said it and helps the customer realize what it was they gave you if they hear it as well as see it. That register didn't give us the change amount, we had to count back to the original amount given by the customer, which is why we were trained to repeat the amount back to the customer.

12 years later, that habit is still with me. You won't believe the number of customers who say "Oh, a $20? I have a $10 instead to give you" for a five dollar item.

[Imogene]

I've actually picked up the habit of stating the size of the bill when paying with a larger one, since a McD's employee once almost (unintentionally) scammed me out of 10 Euro.

I paid with a 20 (total was 4.whatever) and he gave me back 5.something - change for a 10. When I informed him that I'd paid with a 20, he said no, it was a 10. I insisted, got my missing 10 and my food except for one item which he said he'd get to me.

Sat down, ate my food, waited a while for the last bit... he came up some 10 minutes later, apologized and said I was right and sorry for the delay. Gave me my burger and a free coke for the waiting.

Still, made me a bit more careful for the future.

If my McDonald's policy is anything like what other McDonald's do, sadly, 'the customer is always right. Apologize first before making it right for them, no matter the complaint.'
So, it could've been that he realised his mistake, or it could've been his manager caught what was going on and had to admonish him for disobeying the customer...

[El Barto]

This is why I like CVS's no $20's in the drawer policy. All 20's, 50's and 100's get put into a dropbox. If someone wants to try pulling this crap at CVS they have to deal with a manager or supervisor.

[chryso]

If you KNOW they are trying to scam you can't you just keep all their money?

[blaubent]

If you KNOW they are trying to scam you can't you just keep all their money?

That's just it. I did not know it happened until after the fact. It happened too quickly. That guy's a pro!

IF I had known, I would have quickly grabbed my manager and had him call the police or something like that.

[Imogene]

If you KNOW they are trying to scam you can't you just keep all their money?

Um...?
What right does the store have to the money? Except for what was used to pay for goods or services, the money belongs to the 'scammer'.

[Anakah]

That's what gets me. Nobody is ever trained how to catch scammers and yet the managers get all pissy if you allow them to scam you. Luckily at my job I have to do ONE transaction at a time and if they try to mess with me their butts are all over a billion survellance videos.
Another thing. Counterfeit. Again if there's no real training in the matter (we don't have those scanner thingys) and they expect us to just KNOW all these things. Go figure. It shouldn't count against you if they don't prepare you for something like that.

[XCashier]

Anakah, I couldn't agree more. That's why I post the link to the Secret Service Know Your Money counterfeit-detecting page in every incarnation of CS. (here it is again, in case anyone's interested: http://www.secretservice.gov/know_your_money.shtml ) I really believe we should educate ourselves, because management doesn't care enough to educate us.

And some newbie, some teen doing his first job, how the hell is he going to know how to deal with a scam the first time? He's never had to deal with it in school, or at home, same as mopping up someone else's mess or reeling from a verbal assault. This is the stuff management should be educating the employees about, not the sappy-happy fantasy world of The Customer Is Always Right.

[Kusanagi]

For those that are curious as a better way to detect counterfiets, certain office supply stores sell pens that you can use to detect fake currency. You mark the bill and the ink turns yellow or clear if it's legit. If it's fake, it turns dark brown or black.

I've ended up catching a few counterfiet bills from this, unless the customer is doing a wash-scam. This is easily detected by holding up the bill and looking for the watermark or colored strip.