Tried to Scam Me

[Anakah]

I've never had a customer do this to me before and it had my heart going a hundred miles an hour when I realized what he did.

SC: I'd like fives please.

Me: Okay.

He puts down a hundred dollar bill. I pull off a clip of fives (which is one hundred dollars) and start to count it out.

Me: WHOA!

As I near the end because lo and behold, what did he do while I was counting? He pulled back the hundred and put a twenty in its place. I quickly grabbed back the hundred in fives and gave him twenty in fives. He seemed mad that his scam didn't work.

What on earth possessed him to do this? That hundred was in MY area and I could've gone out eighty dollars short. I hate scammers. Thank god I caught it in time, my heart was racing for quite sometime after.

[CancelMyService]

what possessed him to do it? the chance to get a free $80 from you I'd bet

congrats to you for catching a bastard in the act.

[marasbaras]

That's why, when giving change, you should take the customer's money into your possession ... putting it in a separate place so that there is no question what it is, how much it is, etc.

Good for you for catching the jerk.

[Anakah]

I can't. The money has to be in the view of the camera. It was in my area. The jerk reached into my area and pulled it back. And his ass was on camera but not much I could do. I'm just glad I caught it in time.

[queenbb]

i heard of a scam a while back where people would ask for change and then change their mind about how what denomination they wanted a few times.

the goal to confuse you in to giving them more money.

i havent heard of it in a while nor have i had anyone try to attempt it on me, but when ever some one asks me for change its always in the back of my mind.

[bainsidhe]

Queenbb, you're thinking of quick change artists and they are still out and about, believe me. We had an employee meeting in February that said our tills were $700.00 short due to money scams during the month of January alone

I'm sure it will be brought up again soon, too. Summer months are when we're most likely to see a lot of traveler's check and money scams, because the weather is nicer and there are scammers that move across the country. That's right, scammers aren't always your nice little local jerk.

[marasbaras]

Ah, if you can't ... then, count out what you're going to give him. THEN ... make sure his is ON CAMERA and his hands are away. Then, count the change out to him. If touches anything ... start over, rinse, repeat.

Protect yourself. If it takes longer to make change because of it, that's too bad for the rest of us. We all know that your boss will hold YOU responsible if your till is short $80 because of someone who really should just be sliced a few times and tossed to the sharks.

[Peppergirl]

Anakah - don't you work at a casino?? I thought it was a BIG no-no to attempt that crap at a casino. Did security whisk him away?

Disclaimer: I'm fully aware that it's a big no-no everywhere, just particularly bad at a casino.

[Norton]

heard of a scam a while back where people would ask for change and then change their mind about how what denomination they wanted a few times.

the goal to confuse you in to giving them more money.

Had that happen to a few cashiers at my last job. The scammer tried the same thing with me, but once I realized she was trying to confuse me, I snatched back whatever money I had taken out the till, and shoved the rest back at her telling her I didn't have the change she wanted. She got all huffy and stomped out.

[rerant]

i heard of a scam a while back where people would ask for change and then change their mind about how what denomination they wanted a few times.

the goal to confuse you in to giving them more money.

That recently happened to a girl at my work. What sucks is my work has these little "codes" to say over the phone to LP when we think something is up, but there is no "code" that one cashier can say to another if they see this happening and get the sense the person is a scammer.
Me and a friend (who works with me) tried to think of ways to alert the cashier who is in the middle of being confused about change but couldn't come up with anything.

All I could think of was telling the customer, "Store policy is you get the change we give you and we can't alter it after putting the amount into the register."

[Dreamstalker]

i heard of a scam a while back where people would ask for change and then change their mind about how what denomination they wanted a few times.

the goal to confuse you in to giving them more money.

Once at the game store, it seemed as if someone was trying to pull that on me so I slowed down a bit and was very methodical with their assorted transactions (I will always complete the current sale before any other money-related requests, and always put offered bills on top of the cash drawer when counting out change). Ultimately everything balanced, so all was good. Come to find out the next day that...the SC complained about me being too slow. Also come to find out the guy did the same thing to another small bookstore in the area and got away with it.

I don't know why some owners don't feel it neccesary to educate cash-handlers about common scams.

[Andara Bledin]

The best way to deal with the quick-change scammers is to do each and every transaction as a separate thing. First, do the sale. Then, once the sale is complete, do the change. If they change what they want, either take all the money back and start over (no money should change hands until it's finished), or complete the original change transaction and make any changes as completely new transactions.

With the scammer Anakah got, however, the only defense is to be alert and pay attention to all of the bills as much as possible.

^-.-^

[bainsidhe]

The best way to deal with the quick-change scammers is to do each and every transaction as a separate thing.

While I agree this certainly helps, the true best way is to stop making change for anyone, period. But then, you have the pleasure of listening to people whine because they can't get change.

[queenbb]

i thought the scam might still be around, its an oldie but goodie i suppose. i just havent heard of it happening for a while.

i dont even remember what they would do to confuse you, and when ever i ran it through my head the money would come out right.

most of the time when i get change its usually for a 1 or a 5 so someone can get something out of the snack machines in the waiting room. and usually i dont have complaints about what kind of money i give back as change cause usually we are low on alot of bills, although occasinaly when out of dollars i will ask them if they would like a 10$ roll of quarters, saying that it would be great if they had to do laundery at the coin wash, ill usually get takers on that one if i dont have enough 1's in the till.

[Kyree]

i thought the scam might still be around, its an oldie but goodie i suppose. i just havent heard of it happening for a while.

i dont even remember what they would do to confuse you, and when ever i ran it through my head the money would come out right.

What they would do is when you're finishing up their transaction, shove a bill in your face and say they want change for it. In the middle of doing that, they'll change their mind and switch the demoninations of the change they want, and keep doing it until you're confused as hell. They also add in the impatient and angry tone that makes you want to just finish their order and be done with it, and fluster you.

It happened to my boss when I worked at my old toy store. He managed to fluster her up. But after he left, she realized what had happened and counted the till to see how badly she messed up. The till was $20 over