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

jamespir

heretolearn wrote: »

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.

really 1p :eek: when i worked as an assitanat manager in a resteraunt i used to check the tills and the limit was 5.00 either way then i'd ask questions if it was more than 20.00 quid then they'd be given disciplinary action

geordie_joe

heretolearn wrote: »

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.

And from then on you will be presumed to be innocent until proven guilty. The police will ask the employer for evidence of guilt, if they can't provide any they will simply walk away. If the employer continues with the action the courts will assume you are innocent until your accuser proves you are guilty, the employment tribunal will assume you are innocent until your employer proves you are guilty.

rickbonar

Owain_Moneysaver wrote: »

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.

Yes that is right but and honest mistakes do occur ... sometimes you may be given too much change; clearly a mistake but this is rare and "mistakes" tend to be in the other direction.

This particular scam has been around for a long time and they have adapted to modern technology like cctv and computerised tills.

I know my £20 never actually got to the till and there's a good reason for saying that : ie. the notes were sequenced fresh from the cash machine and the till checker showed me the £20 in the till and there wasn't a fresh note in there. Now the till balanced but where was the £20? My conclusion was that the note was either switched or someone else had been short changed before in the last few minutes.

p00hsticks

rickbonar wrote: »

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.

I think that usually the person in charge of the till is the victim, not the scammer...

Here's a link that takes you through one of the more common ones
http://fraudtech.bizland.com/short_change.htm

Brodiebobs

it works both ways though, at one point when a student i worked in two bars. A man came in one bar paid with a £10 i gave him correct change he kicked up a fuss calling me a liar in front of everyone, i opened till and there were no £20 notes, even emptied my pockets, he looked sheepish but apologised. Few weeks later in the other bar he tried it again with a collegue, the bar manager gave him the extra money that time. Of course i told the manager, but he let it go.
Got a pic off security and gave it to police, they werent interested. Few weeks later he was back in original bar and i made sure i said £10,£20 whatever everytime i served him, didnt try it that time!

partyprincess

A few weeks ago I paid for a bag of crisps costing about 40p with a £10 note because I had no change. When the man gave me the change he gave me 8 £1 coins and some silver despite the fact that I could see fivers in the till. As he gave me the change he started making conversation with me. I put the coins into my purse without checking. I knew something wasn't right so I stood in the doorway checking the change. When I went back and said the change was a pound short he just opened the till and gave me the pound and said "sorry about that" while smiling. I'm certain it was a scam, it may only be £1 but I do wonder how many other people he had ripped off. Yes it certainly works both ways and just goes to show that you have to be on the ball as a customer or a cashier to prevent this sort of thing happening.

DON79

The only time I have had it happen to me is at a drive-thru, went to the window to pay and had a ten & two fives. The man didn't confirm the price but as we had bought the same food before, we expected it to be 16 so handed over the ten & two fives. He only gave me 26p change so I queried how much it was for the food, I had to ask him to confirm the price three times before he finally confirmed the amount and gave me back the extra five pounds he should have done at the start.

Saying that I work in a bank and as a cashier, it is so easy to be distracted when you are trying to work out change and getting asked lots of different questions by the customer at the same time as trying to give them the correct change. Mistakes happen and I have done it and had people come back to me to say I have given them the wrong change. All that happens is that I check my till and like said above, it should have more money in it or a £20 in with the £10's etc.

You just have to be vigilant and make sure you check your change at the time (and don't distract the cashier or ask them to do too many things at once!)

DoubleSix_2

An older scam in shops without conveyor belts/barcode scanners used to be a random tin near the till.

The assistant would ring up the value of that tin with your other purchases and if it was spotted would remark " oh I thought it was yours"

Lokolo_2

I agree that both customers and retail places are victims of shortchanging.

You would wish that customers could make their minds up how they want to pay, so many times has a customer given me a note and then after inputting that into the till system they want to give some coins to get rounded amount of change, this is just confusing and I think once you have already offered the note you shouldn't confuse the cashier by giving more money!

Most modern Tills make it clear what change to give and are covered by CCTV so you could see if either the Cashier or the customer was being deceitful. I have seen occasions when a customer claimed to have given a £20 note when the Cashier claims it was only a £10 note, normally you do a full count on the till to see if the customer or Cashier is correct. Most normal people would not put their job at risk by decieving customers let alone the company they work for just for a few quid! :T

galaxynicole

My friend was done like that in a bar. She had got £20 out of the cash machine and it gave her £20 notes. We ordered two drinks and he gave her the change for a £10. We asked him where the rest of the change was? and he said we'd only given him £10. We kicked up a fuss, they got the manager out and he said that if they were over by £10 that night and they would ring us. Guess what? They never did.

Now if dealing with any pub, I learn the numbers on £20 note and so I can quote it. Though I try and avoid having £20 out with me.