Archived Your Weirdest Scam/Fraud Moment?

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SoCalMama said:
I hate all scammers. :) (I recognize the sarcasm font, I just don't know how to use it yet.)
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Hi light your text and click the A with the arrow pointing to the smaller a, simmler to this "A->a" and click on courier new. It's a lot of fun.
 
I get a lot of guests whom pick up receipts either in our parking lot or out of the trash. They then steal items listed on the receipt, and then take it to another store to try and return them. I had one yesterday. He was trying to return a box of diapers. He handed me his receipt. It was brown. Like the same color as our khaki pants, and full of tiny little holes from rocks in the pavement. When he handed it to me, I just held it with my thumb and index finger and stared at it for a second. The guest said....

G: "sorry, it was in my drive way."

Me: "Yeah? Looks more like it got ran over by a few cars in the parking lot."

G: "Oh. I forgot my wallet actually, I'll be back."

He never came back. I love finding subtle ways to call out thieves. I like it even more when they get the hint and leave.
 
Target NPC said:
I get a lot of guests whom pick up receipts either in our parking lot or out of the trash. They then steal items listed on the receipt, and then take it to another store to try and return them. I had one yesterday. He was trying to return a box of diapers. He handed me his receipt. It was brown. Like the same color as our khaki pants, and full of tiny little holes from rocks in the pavement. When he handed it to me, I just held it with my thumb and index finger and stared at it for a second. The guest said....

G: "sorry, it was in my drive way."

Me: "Yeah? Looks more like it got ran over by a few cars in the parking lot."

G: "Oh. I forgot my wallet actually, I'll be back."

He never came back. I love finding subtle ways to call out thieves. I like it even more when they get the hint and leave.
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If that happened to me I would either ask to verify another item or two on the reciept or the last four of the card used to pay for the refund.
 
Amanda Cantwell said:
If that happened to me I would either ask to verify another item or two on the reciept or the last four of the card used to pay for the refund.
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And then they say, "I don't have the card, can I get cash?"
 
Oh my gosh, she came back! The lady who claims to have purchased several party trays and at least one had a hair in it? Yeah. Except this time the STL took care of it... by checking the transaction history on the tray she wanted "refunded." Yeah, we hadn't sold one of those trays in over a year. It was beautiful and I have newfound respect for this STL.
 
Deli Ninja said:
Oh my gosh, she came back! The lady who claims to have purchased several party trays and at least one had a hair in it? Yeah. Except this time the STL took care of it... by checking the transaction history on the tray she wanted "refunded." Yeah, we hadn't sold one of those trays in over a year. It was beautiful and I have newfound respect for this STL.
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OMG that is crazy!!!! I remember the old post. Of all of the random things to do to scam, this one is very odd.

I rarely work GS, but when I do, if I call for AP or LOD, they know that something is up. The former AP-ETL once said that he knew that I didn't need him in most cases. Once he was watching something go down on video and he commented, "She won't need us. She's a beast," which I took as a compliment.
 
SoCalMama said:
OMG that is crazy!!!! I remember the old post. Of all of the random things to do to scam, this one is very odd.

I rarely work GS, but when I do, if I call for AP or LOD, they know that something is up. The former AP-ETL once said that he knew that I didn't need him in most cases. Once he was watching something go down on video and he commented, "She won't need us. She's a beast," which I took as a compliment.
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I love AP, especially when they ask me to keep and eye on some guests. I always help them, once I caught 2 girls trying to steal tons of makeup and clothes, they always come in. 2 young girls and a young guy who looks like a bum. I was SCO and AP just stood next to me and immediately this girl pulled out some stuff from a basket and said, actually I am not going to get these. AP then had to go on lunch and he told me to look for the girls friend. Then later her friend who was still in store came with a basket full of clothes and such, she went to SCO and looked like she was hiding, but I stood right behind her and she knew it. I could tell she was going to trying something If I left, so after a little while of her just staring at the SCO machine she turned around and said I change my mind, and left. But then I see them come back and run into the bathroom, then leave. They always come in being suspicious and cashing gift cards at Guest service.
 
jferr3 said:
I had an older man come to my register wanting to buy $5,000 in gift cards. Immediately my antenna went up. I asked him if someone told him to do this and not tell anyone, did someone tell him he won a contest with a big cash prize and that he had to pay a free in gift cards to collect it, did someon contact him telling him they had a family member in custody and that hey wanted gift cards to release them, He said no its alright and put his head down. There was nothing more I could do so i gave him 3 cards, 2 with $2,000 on them and 1 for $1,000. Fifteen minutes later my supervisor comes up to me and says nice job Joe, that guy who bought the gift cards said that after talking to you he knew he made a mistake and returned the gift cards.
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anything $4,000 or over needs to be called in and request it to be done. we tell them that and they back out. (it's a real rule, lol)
 
one would be a guy ticket switching (sco cashier didn't tell me till after) and he handed the sheet set to someone guy outside, and that guy immediately came back in to try and return it without a receipt.
caught the same guy ticket switching again, i grabbed the sheet set after he finished paying and was like "hey is that the right price? oh look, someone switched the label. I have to void the payment. sorry."
some guy straight up grabbed a bike from the bike wall and tried to straight up walk right out with it. came back a few weeks later, grabbed a bike again, put a rack or water bottle on the bike and scanned that so i looked like he tanned the bike(I'm a bike builder, i know where the barcodes are at) and i went up to guest service him, said "oh you didn't scan the bike, let me get it for you" then he swipes some random card and says "oh i don't have enough money for it" like no shit you didn't have money for it, you never intended to buy the bike.
 
also i had a guy tell me "if you are ever broke, scan a cheaper item and but a more expensive item on the scale to trick it" I'm like hey did you just do that now? cause thats illegal, and we will prosecute you."
 
jferr3 said:
I had an older man come to my register wanting to buy $5,000 in gift cards. Immediately my antenna went up. I asked him if someone told him to do this and not tell anyone, did someone tell him he won a contest with a big cash prize and that he had to pay a free in gift cards to collect it, did someon contact him telling him they had a family member in custody and that hey wanted gift cards to release them, He said no its alright and put his head down. There was nothing more I could do so i gave him 3 cards, 2 with $2,000 on them and 1 for $1,000. Fifteen minutes later my supervisor comes up to me and says nice job Joe, that guy who bought the gift cards said that after talking to you he knew he made a mistake and returned the gift cards.
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You probably should've called over a GSA/TL to verify that transaction.
 
jferr3 said:
Another scammer I exposed was a 30ish girl kind of chubby who bought $175 in merchandise,, It comes time to pay and she hands me 2 gift cards the generic white ones with red target on them for payment. On one she had written with sharpie 'aunt bessie' and the other 'cousin april'. I scanned them for payment and found they had zero balance. I did a price check to verify. She was stunned when I told her they had nothing on them saying she got them from 2 different people from 2 different states at her bridal shower. She went on and on with her very convincing act saying I cant believe this they were supposed to have $100 on each card, what am I going to do now. So, being the nosey bastard that I am I looked on the back and found they had consecutive serial numbers. That showed that they came from the same place. And I was curious as to why she had these cards that we usually give out at the register instead of the theme gift cards (birthday, present, happy birthday, best wishes, etc) that we sell in the check lanes. I told her she is full of garbage and that I dont believe her story. I said im going to call the police. She made a b-line for the exit door leaving all the stuff behind. What she did was obvious, she grabbed 2 gift cards at a register, wrote the names on them and tried to convince me that they were worth $100 each. Better luck next time sweetheart.
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I've had that happen at SD, same woman, three times now. White gift card, it was a gift from her bank, "I can't believe my bank scammed me" kinda deal. Always supposed to be a 100.00 gift card.

Sorry, we don't sell the generic white cards you mook.
 
We stopped a girl who duped one of our newb baristas with the 'giftcard-was-a-gift-it-should-have-lots-of-money-on-it'.
She came back the next day, tried it with me & I held the drink waiting for her to swipe the giftcard.
Came up $0.00, started stammering about it supposedly having $75 on it; don't know WHAT could've happened to it & she had NO other way to pay.
I told her to call the 800 number on back as I tossed the drink; she never came back.
Another one we watch for is the guy who swipes his SB card & goes down to the hand-off point to grab his drink, hoping we won't notice that payment didn't go thru. He doesn't come around any more either.
 
jferr3 said:
Another scammer I exposed was a 30ish girl kind of chubby who bought $175 in merchandise,, It comes time to pay and she hands me 2 gift cards the generic white ones with red target on them for payment. On one she had written with sharpie 'aunt bessie' and the other 'cousin april'. I scanned them for payment and found they had zero balance. I did a price check to verify. She was stunned when I told her they had nothing on them saying she got them from 2 different people from 2 different states at her bridal shower. She went on and on with her very convincing act saying I cant believe this they were supposed to have $100 on each card, what am I going to do now. So, being the nosey bastard that I am I looked on the back and found they had consecutive serial numbers. That showed that they came from the same place. And I was curious as to why she had these cards that we usually give out at the register instead of the theme gift cards (birthday, present, happy birthday, best wishes, etc) that we sell in the check lanes. I told her she is full of garbage and that I dont believe her story. I said im going to call the police. She made a b-line for the exit door leaving all the stuff behind. What she did was obvious, she grabbed 2 gift cards at a register, wrote the names on them and tried to convince me that they were worth $100 each. Better luck next time sweetheart.
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....you told the guest you're going to call the cops? That's not appropriate at all....
 
jferr3 said:
I had an older man come to my register wanting to buy $5,000 in gift cards. Immediately my antenna went up. I asked him if someone told him to do this and not tell anyone, did someone tell him he won a contest with a big cash prize and that he had to pay a free in gift cards to collect it, did someon contact him telling him they had a family member in custody and that hey wanted gift cards to release them, He said no its alright and put his head down. There was nothing more I could do so i gave him 3 cards, 2 with $2,000 on them and 1 for $1,000. Fifteen minutes later my supervisor comes up to me and says nice job Joe, that guy who bought the gift cards said that after talking to you he knew he made a mistake and returned the gift cards.
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jferr3 said:
Another scammer I exposed was a 30ish girl kind of chubby who bought $175 in merchandise,, It comes time to pay and she hands me 2 gift cards the generic white ones with red target on them for payment. On one she had written with sharpie 'aunt bessie' and the other 'cousin april'. I scanned them for payment and found they had zero balance. I did a price check to verify. She was stunned when I told her they had nothing on them saying she got them from 2 different people from 2 different states at her bridal shower. She went on and on with her very convincing act saying I cant believe this they were supposed to have $100 on each card, what am I going to do now. So, being the nosey bastard that I am I looked on the back and found they had consecutive serial numbers. That showed that they came from the same place. And I was curious as to why she had these cards that we usually give out at the register instead of the theme gift cards (birthday, present, happy birthday, best wishes, etc) that we sell in the check lanes. I told her she is full of garbage and that I dont believe her story. I said im going to call the police. She made a b-line for the exit door leaving all the stuff behind. What she did was obvious, she grabbed 2 gift cards at a register, wrote the names on them and tried to convince me that they were worth $100 each. Better luck next time sweetheart.
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ummmmm what..... like none of this is appropriate at all???? like i get that they were scamming you guys, but you're also accusing a guest of something which im pretty sure it says in the handbook you're not allowed to do?? you're suppose to guest service them..... at any point in these transactions you should have called a GSTL over and had them deal with it. even the GSTLs aren't allowed to accuse the guest of anything.....
 
Had a guest come up to SD asking for cash of his food stamp card. He got super pissed when I refused and angrily walked off muttering "I'll go to the other place that'll do it."

Sorry that I'm not doing something super illegal.
 
shortstuffishere said:
Had a guest come up to SD asking for cash of his food stamp card. He got super pissed when I refused and angrily walked off muttering "I'll go to the other place that'll do it."

Sorry that I'm not doing something super illegal.
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I have to wonder if that was a state inspector checking to see if they could get you to do it.
I gather they have started to do this in some states to track down the businesses where people can get away with this.

Personally I would have had a real hard time telling the asshole that they were the reason that everyone who needs food stamps gets treated like crap and a few other really choice expletives.
 
commiecorvus said:
I have to wonder if that was a state inspector checking to see if they could get you to do it.
I gather they have started to do this in some states to track down the businesses where people can get away with this.

Personally I would have had a real hard time telling the asshole that they were the reason that everyone who needs food stamps gets treated like crap and a few other really choice expletives.
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The way he was dressed.. I doubt it. Unless he asked someone to go into for him.
 
When my stores rules for red-cards -> anyone can apply and save 5% no matter the result

I got a guest to sign up for a red card and i don't really remember how much the item was. However, i got him to sign up for it. He sounded really happy and did not throw me off at all. He ended up signing up getting declined, then trying a "ATM card" (wasn't sure what those were at the time - kinda common sense of name, i know) and got declined. He asked for the closest ATM, said he was going to the front and would come back. Never came back - but he came back next day and he said he paid for the merchandise - which was FALSE! I came into the store the next morning after my workout (in same complex as target) and the AP laughed about it with me saying the guy claimed he paid for the merch and never got ANY of it... they reviewed cam's and laughed away!
 
jferr3 said:
I had an older man come to my register wanting to buy $5,000 in gift cards. Immediately my antenna went up. I asked him if someone told him to do this and not tell anyone, did someone tell him he won a contest with a big cash prize and that he had to pay a free in gift cards to collect it, did someon contact him telling him they had a family member in custody and that hey wanted gift cards to release them, He said no its alright and put his head down. There was nothing more I could do so i gave him 3 cards, 2 with $2,000 on them and 1 for $1,000. Fifteen minutes later my supervisor comes up to me and says nice job Joe, that guy who bought the gift cards said that after talking to you he knew he made a mistake and returned the gift cards.
Click to expand...

I had a guest call one night and ask if we had gift cards for whatever online store the X-Box has in the amount of $100. She said her computer had a virus and she needed three of those for the virus to be removed. I told her she was likely getting scammed but she said the person fixed her computer all the time. Since she was insistent that the person who fixes her computer was legit, I finally decided that the person had to be her teen grandson or someone similar who would happily exchange labor for gaming time.
 
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