The great Supermarket change scam

[milesmartin]

I work part time for Somerfield on checkouts and as many of you may know, there are scammers of the world that like to try and con us, anyway, what do you think about this?

Today, A guy is buying a pizza. It comes to £3.60 and he pays with a £50 pound note. I check the note etc and begin to give him his change which was £46.40. After i have given it him he goes 'Oh i could have given you the right money'. I suspect the scam i know so well and i shut my till and i say 'Sorry i cant get back in the till now'.

So he gets a pack of chewing gum and asks to buy it(so my till will open). He then holds out what i think was the change i originaly gave him (£46.40) and asks for the £50 note back. I said to him 'let me have your money first so i can check it' as i could see it did not look £50 but he would not let me take his money first and started saying 'Why are you shutting the till again? i just opened it by buying that chewing gum' - trying to ignore my desire to get his money first. I then decided to shut the till and told him I would not change his money. He then become nasty.

He started moaning saying I have no manners, i should not be working on a checkout. He started shouting 'Look, you are holding the whole queue up and kept saying 'why are you holding all these people up?' He then said he wanted a refund for his Pizza which i refused as i asked for my manager to come down. This was all my social fears coming live and exclusive from where i work. I think he was trying to get the queue on his side.

A bit more abuse and I began shaking, I locked my till and went off to meet my manager who then refunded his stupid pizza. I shouted to the scammer that he was the worst person i have ever served in 3 years, fueled by panic and adreneline. After he had left, the next person in the queue told me how he had scammed him twice in his place of work and that he was a known scam artist. The queue were very polite after their wait.

My manager gave me an award for handling the situation well by locking my till etc and told me that the abuse was all part of the act. I was also told these people target the polite workers as they appear as easier targets.

So, to anyone else who works on checkouts, never fall for this scam. And always remember, if you lock your till and they buy something else to make you open it again, it is 99% a scammer in the act.

However, it is spinning around my head now. I am having thoughts like: 'What if he was genune and i got it wrong? Did i look stupid etc?

I am still shaking a bit afer 4 hours. I have had this done to me before but they have never become aggressive or nasty in the past.

Never mind, at least they did not scam me.

[IRIS]

well done - must've been horrible.

[-Simon-]

Good for you, sounds like you handled the situation very well.

[magnad]

Well done on handling the situation! But call me stupid, I don't understand the scam.

[bozrena]

Originally Posted by magnad

Well done on handling the situation! But call me stupid, I don't understand the scam.

Same here!

[Defiance]

I'm confused , what exactly was the scam?

[Kevin Hodge]

i work on tills and we are told about this scam but i've never heard of it actually going on in our place.

to the OP, this WILL swish around in your head for a bit, but you should remember that any "normal" person would be worrying about this situation too! well done - you stood your ground and did everything right, even though you were nervous and under pressure.

if you haven't stopped bugging yourself about this in a couple of days, i'll come round to kill a few brain cells (jim beam ok? )

[Kevin Hodge]

Originally Posted by Defiance

I'm confused , what exactly was the scam?

when he goes to get the £50 back, he doesn't give you the correct money, he gives you less. therefore, he has just scammed you.

[Bexii]

Thumbs up for handling the situation well I work in a shop but have never faced anything like that. We're currently in the middle of the forged £20 scam so we have to be on the alert 24/7.

Hope you never have to face that again - but if you do at least you've had prior experience.

Take Care

-Bexii

[milesmartin]

Originally Posted by cloaca

when he goes to get the £50 back, he doesn't give you the correct money, he gives you less. therefore, he has just scammed you.

Yes. my bad for not actually explaining the scam haha.

In the past i have had people with their hands nearly in my till trying to grab money to swap. I find, if you fall for the scam they then try and confuse you more by insisting you own them more money still. They keep giving you change and try to make you think you owe them still.

It is very hard to explain and is probably best understood when it actually happens to you.

They also target so many stores at one time, thus, making a nice little earner if they are successful on many occasions.

[elevation]

TOTALLY know where you're coming from, it is terrifying when it's happening and you know it.

I used to work in Sainsburys in central Manchester and central london and it used to be a constant thing - drug addicts etc. It happened after I'd been there for a week and I was scammed and disciplined. After that I was like a brick wall. I'd say "I've served you already, why are you waiting near the checkout?" and if they did start buying something else, I would ask them to go to another cashier or if a manager was available I would get them.

Working on the customer services desk opens you up to a whole new world of scams.

In my experience, you can get away with a lot in that situation as long as they do not get away with any money the manager will not care.

[Generation Erm]

i'm sure i saw derren brown do this scam on one of his shows. it confuses the hell out of people. maybe it was something different.

[png]

Hats-off to you guys who work checkouts

[pAuL1974]

It's a very old confidence trick. Tricksters are likely to pick on cashiers who appear new, or possibly not entirely confident in the job.

I have worked on checkouts in the past, and it's something we were told to watch for. Never knowingly had any tricksters trying it on with me, though.

From Wikipedia

Change raising is a common short con and involves an offer to change an amount of money with someone, and at the same time taking change or bills back and forth to confuse the person as to how much money they are actually changing. The most common form, "the Short Count," has been featured prominently in several movies about grifting, notably Nueve Reinas, The Grifters, and Paper Moon. A con artist, shopping at a gas station for example, is given 80 cents in change because he lacks two dimes to complete the sale (for example, the sale cost is $19.20 and the con man has a 20 dollar bill). He goes out to his car, and returns a short time later with 20 cents. He returns them, saying that he found the rest of the change to make a dollar, and asking for a bill so he won't have to carry change. The confused store clerk agrees, exchanging a dollar for the 20 cents the con man returned. In essence, the mark makes change twice. Another variation is to flash a $20 bill to the clerk, then ask for something behind the counter. When the clerk turns away, the con artist can swap the bill he is holding to a lesser bill. The clerk might then make change for the larger bill, without noticing it has been swapped. This was shown in The Grifters. The technique works better when bills are the same colour and shape at a glance.

[Johnni]

I hate workig on the till, i work in Somerfield PT also actually and i can imgaine the situation you described. Usually you can tell a person if they seem 'dodgy'.
I think having customers like that will actually help you in a weird way cos it makes you stronger and experience. I can remember being less confident with unhappy customers etc and shaking quite a bit but now i love it . Usually they are in the wrong and i am confident to explain to them the situation.
I do get some idiot customers, alot who don't understand how typically meat is sold per kg so if the label says 2.50 quid per kilo they think the whole pack (usually worth 10+) is only 2.50 pound and i have to stand their explaining to them how thick they are.

Well done for standing your ground, Martin

[Pal]

Excellent work, a nightmare situation for SA sufferers particually with our fear of humiliation etc. I take it you've not dealt with direct in your face aggression or adrenalin in the past.

If you're up for it give the FAST course a try, that can work wonders for tackling that.

[Pal]

Originally Posted by pAuL1974

It's a very old confidence trick. Tricksters are likely to pick on cashiers who appear new, or possibly not entirely confident in the job.

I have worked on checkouts in the past, and it's something we were told to watch for. Never knowingly had any tricksters trying it on with me, though.

From Wikipedia

A friend of mine had this problem during what i think was the same sort of trick, because she's very shy and not all that bright she tended to get targeted by all sorts of scummy people including underage drinkers and would make a brilliant target for preditory types. :rolleyes:

[Pal]

Originally Posted by elevation

TOTALLY know where you're coming from, it is terrifying when it's happening and you know it.

I used to work in Sainsburys in central Manchester and central london and it used to be a constant thing - drug addicts etc. It happened after I'd been there for a week and I was scammed and disciplined. After that I was like a brick wall. I'd say "I've served you already, why are you waiting near the checkout?" and if they did start buying something else, I would ask them to go to another cashier or if a manager was available I would get them.

Working on the customer services desk opens you up to a whole new world of scams.

In my experience, you can get away with a lot in that situation as long as they do not get away with any money the manager will not care.

I wonder if that's why an Sommerfield cashier got arsey with me for not leaving the checkout area quick enough several weeks back!?

[case-sensitive]

Well done for handling the situation so well. For a scam like this to be a success it relies on the confusion and passive acceptence of the scamee (not sure if thats the correct term). I used to work as a CCTV operator at M&S and came across similar incidents there - on the odd occassion the scam worked so it shows you handled the situation well.

[elevation]

Originally Posted by Pal

I wonder if that's why an Sommerfield cashier got arsey with me for not leaving the checkout area quick enough several weeks back!?

Oh, if it was an everyday customer I wouldn't be like that, but if they were grubby, homeless, or attempting money scams I would.

You can tell very easily who is doing it - it's almost scripted on their part. And it only happens to most cashiers once because of how glaringly obvious it is. The job is very repetitive, most customers behave in predictable, consistent ways. They will say very samey things and do things in the same order. When people deviate from this normal pattern, you go on red alert.

The scammers - they've obviously rehearsed and exchanged notes. They all do the same trick, deviating from the above pattern. A normal person would not ask to have a 20 changed for 2 tens, and THEN change their mind to confuse you, for instance. You might give the two tens and very carefully take/check their 20, to be nice. But if they reach into their pockets and ask to change other things you just know it's a con. They are like "no give me the 20 back. i'll give you three quid and then you give me a five and i'll give you a ten and then we're square" and try and jumble your head up. The everyday customer would be very grateful and stop at that because they know you've done them a favour. That's when I would ask them to leave.

This is then always followed by an OTT reaction to you saying you won't open the till again. A normal customer, who asked for favours would be more like "What? Urgh! FINE! *storms off*" if you told them no. They'd be a bit annoyed but also embarrassed to be refused. The scam people are like "WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU WONT DO IT, WHO DO YOU THINK YA TALKIN TO EH? RAH-RAH-RAH..." Then they fire personal insults - just intimidating behaviour instead of clipped but accepting.

[Holz]

Change raising is a common short con and involves an offer to change an amount of money with someone, and at the same time taking change or bills back and forth to confuse the person as to how much money they are actually changing. The most common form, "the Short Count," has been featured prominently in several movies about grifting, notably Nueve Reinas, The Grifters, and Paper Moon. A con artist, shopping at a gas station for example, is given 80 cents in change because he lacks two dimes to complete the sale (for example, the sale cost is $19.20 and the con man has a 20 dollar bill). He goes out to his car, and returns a short time later with 20 cents. He returns them, saying that he found the rest of the change to make a dollar, and asking for a bill so he won't have to carry change. The confused store clerk agrees, exchanging a dollar for the 20 cents the con man returned. In essence, the mark makes change twice. Another variation is to flash a $20 bill to the clerk, then ask for something behind the counter. When the clerk turns away, the con artist can swap the bill he is holding to a lesser bill. The clerk might then make change for the larger bill, without noticing it has been swapped. This was shown in The Grifters. The technique works better when bills are the same colour and shape at a glance.

I think they did both of those in Hustle.
Well done for dealing with it so well, I'd have been terrified and probably just handed over the money.

[Andy]

There are loads of scams in Supermarkets. Somebody tried one on me a few years ago. They asked for £50 cash back from their credit card, I gave them £50, 5 minutes later they came back to claiming I only gave them £40, I confidently said, “No, I gave you £50”, then the person looked down and says, “Oh sorry your right, you did give me £50”. The customer obviously thought I would bow down and give them another £10 out.

I always hated when someone paid in cash because you were always afraid of making a mistake or counting out the change wrong. Credit Card transactions were so easy!

Other scams I've heard of include hiding things in the trolley at the checkout and when you confront them about it they say, "Sorry I forgot about that", swapping stick-on barcodes, or hiding other products inside cereal boxes etc.


Well done for handling the situation so well