Have you been scammed at the checkout? tell us your story

rickbonar

anyone here recently been taken by the wrong change scam by barmen or supermarket checkout staff where they give you change of £10 instead of £20 and know just how the mechanics of this con work?

Please tell me as I'm interested how they get away with it.

Mischa8

To be honest, OP, I think it is a genuine mistake. It is up to you as the customer to check your change in most bars/shops and it is also up to the counterstaff/barperson to ensure they give you the right change, but sometimes, they're all human, they give the wrong change....

This also applies to cashback in supermarkets, they *should* ask you to initial where you were given the cashback as you, the customer could easily go back to the shop/supermarket and claim you hadn't received the cashback when you asked for it, and it'd be your word against theirs. Most cashiers *do* ask you to initial but some blithely hand the cash over, no initial required.

Also, I really cannot see why barstaff/cashiers *would* day after day give the wrong change, surely their boss would sack them and is there a law (police) that could be enforced?

So I'd say just keep an eye out...

rickbonar

No I don't mean a genuine mistake I mean a deliberate scam and no they don't do it day in day out but only when the conditions are right.

It seems to be that most of these con artists are male and often the subject of the scam knows straight away they've been had but somehow the scammer knows how to duck the cctv and sleight of hand to switch the money in the till.

geordie_joe

Mischa8 wrote: »

Also, I really cannot see why barstaff/cashiers *would* day after day give the wrong change,

To make money! They don't give the wrong change to everyone they serve, just people they think won't check their change.

They serve a man twice in a bar, both times he hands over a note and doesn't check his change. So there's a very good chance he won't check his change the third time, especially as he's now had a couple of drinks.

It's the same in shops, people who look harassed, in a hurry etc. or people they have served before and noticed they didn't check their change.

Mischa8 wrote: »

surely their boss would sack them and is there a law (police) that could be enforced?

Only if they get caught, and they think if someone does make a fuss then nobody can prove it was deliberate. They just apologise and swear it was a genuine mistake.

A few years ago I went into a chip shop I don't normally go in. I handed over a tenner but the woman gave me change out of a fiver. I had turned towards the door before I realised she had given me change from a fiver not a tenner. I turned back to "complain" about it and she immediately put her hand in her pocket, pulled out a fiver and handed it to me. She didn't say a word, and had a blank look on here face. I didn't say anything either, just took the note and left. But I knew it was not a genuine mistake. She'd obviously, and deliberately, took the fiver out of the till and kept it, giving me only the coins. Then put the note in her pocket when I turned away. I didn't see what she took out of the till, it was hidden by the high counter. But she must have taken it from the till, otherwise she would have been given me her own money.

Also, I hadn't actually said anything to her, I could have turned back to ask if she had any of those little wooden forks.

rickbonar

Geordie that's the con I mean ...

It happened to me a couple of times in the last few years but on both occassions I spotted the problem straight away.

Usually there's some sort of distraction technique involved and my case it was a £20 (I'd only just got it from the cashpoint £60 in £20s). The distraction could be asking you want something else as you hand over your money. I'm not sure how they get around cctv but they seem pretty confident ... I guess they know just what the camera picks up.

I was given change of a £10 in both the cases. But it seems this kind of scam is on the increase.

The point is there are cases where there are an honest mistake is made but when they count the takings then it will be plus or minus the wrongly changed sum. Where the scam comes is where the till is balanced. Not possible where it's been done honestly. I figure the technique involves either a switch of the money or where they successfully taken someone else earlier and they simply pocket the money.

Just wondered if others have been taken and realised it immediately but the cashier as Geordie says swears otherwise.

geordie_joe

yes, they have to get the correct money out of the till and not give the note to the customer. if it is a genuine mistake then the ten pound note will still be in the till.

I think part of the reason why it might be on the increase is because people don't like to check their change when given it. Other people don't seem to like them doing it either. So it is easy to get away with it.

GettingItRight

I remember a while back, I had returned home from a Friday night out with friends. I emptied my wallet out onto a table just to see how much money I spent that night. In doing so, I realised one of the bar staff had given me two silver coins with clean holes through the centre. Both the size of a 10p coin.

While I never pursued the matter - I would never have been able to prove it was one specific bar - I was very angry and felt cheated. At the end of the day, it was my own fault for not checking the change given.

I make this post as an example of why checking the money given back by bar staff is important. This however can apply to any cash transactions one makes. Since that incident I check all coins and notes given to me.

Bunter_2

I am pretty sure some one used a "technique" on me in one bar that I use to visit. On the first occasion I thought I was wrong-changed (given change of a fiver, instead of a tenner) but I could not swear to it as I did not know for sure what I had handed over.

After that I made sure that I always knew what I was handing over and I noticed that the bar person had a certain way of giving the change. Let me give an example. I would give him ten pounds and the change would be £7. He would hand me the two one pound coins with his "forward" hand and hold the fiver in his "back" hand. I would look at the two pounds (and see that it was not enough) and then look at him expectantly. When he saw I was waiting for more he would then bring his back hand forward and hand over the fiver.

It was done in such a synchronised way it looked as if nothing was amiss;
but a customer could easily be duped into thinking that the change he was being offered with the forward hand was all he was owed.

I realized then that that was how I was fooled the first time.

facingthefuture

Yes in the bank, I banked £300 in to the account of my sister and it never went in. She was abroad and I didn't find out for a month later. I was not given a receipt so I couldn't prove it but asked for the video footage to be reviewed - the bank ignored me. Obviously a thieving bank cashier. I was furious but couldn't do anything about it, I bet she robbed lots of people though....

Owain_Moneysaver

rickbonar wrote: »

The point is there are cases where there are an honest mistake is made but when they count the takings then it will be plus or minus the wrongly changed sum. Where the scam comes is where the till is balanced. Not possible where it's been done honestly. I figure the technique involves either a switch of the money or where they successfully taken someone else earlier and they simply pocket the money.

If customers are being short changed then the till builds up a surplus. Any supervisor knows what a surplus may mean. The scam is to get an accomplice in towards the end of the shift, make a purchase, then give the accomplice the surplus as 'change'.

If it's an honest mistake then the till will have your £20 in the £10s compartment as that's where the cashier would have put it.

Bear in mind that customers also scam by saying they handed over a £20 when they only gave a £10.

heretolearn_2

It's quite a risk though.

When I worked on a check-out for a couple of months years ago, it was drummed into us that we should never take any personal money out on the floor. Random checks are made and if you are found with as little as 1p, it is assumed you have stolen it, instant dismissal and police are called.