If you work in retail...

[ScrumYummy]

Watch out for this!! Don't let this happen to you!!

Max called me a little while ago. He sounded depressed and fatigued. "I've been had," he said.

He was referring to a change scam, one that happened not so long ago to me (although I managed to foil the scam). Basically, a guy came in, set something down on the counter, and paid for it with a $50 bill. After I counted back his changed, he replied "Oh, I gave you a 50? I thought that was a 5. Well, I like to keep big bills, so can I buy it back from you?"

I had never seen a scam like that before, so I thought he was being honest and agreed. He handed me back the change I had just handed him. I counted it. "This isn't 50," I said. "I need $50. You gave me $43." (It was a mixture of bills, jumbled together. According to his plan, I was supposed to just stick the change in the register and hand him the $50 bill.)

"Oh, sorry," he replies, then fumbles around and hands me more money. I count it again, then gave him the fifty. While I was putting the change back in the drawer, he tossed the fifty on top of the drawer and asked if he could have a $100 bill.

I told him that I needed fifty more dollars. He gave it to me; I gave him the $100, and he left so quickly that he forgot to take what he had just bought.

If the scam had worked, I would have gotten confused and put the change and the fifty in the drawer and given him the $100, and the drawer would have been at least $50 short at close. Unfortunately, Max was really tired, and the guy that scammed him worked so fast that he didn't give Max time to think.

So if you work in retail, watch out!! These scammers are out there. Let's kick 'em in the rear!!! Read over these tips, and keep them in mind:

• The moment a customer requests a larger bill, keep track of everything that's going on in the transaction. Remember--a penny for a penny--what comes out, must go back in.
  
• The "customer" will be in a hurry, and will be buying something that is $10 or less (or, the total of the things he or she is buying will be under $10). Remember, whatever they're buying is an investment in their scam--they don't want to buy something too expensive, that would mean less profit.
  
• Don't let people rush you. Take your time giving and getting change. If someone's in a rush, it's a sign they're going to try to scam you--they're trying to move so fast that you don't have time to think. Slow down, and go at a pace that you know you can't make mistakes at.
  
• Count back the change. This is also a good practice in general; when I count back change out loud to a customer, I know I'm giving them the right change, shorting neither them nor my drawer. Also, carefully count everything a customer gives you.
  
• Know the number to your mall security (or, if not in a mall, the police non-emergency number), and call them the moment you suspect something. Also, know "codes," so that the scammer doesn't have an excuse to get belligerant with you (knowing that you called mall security/police). At Icing, our code was coffee--if I told another associate "Can you call for a cup of coffee?" they would know to call security, and they would tell them "I need a cup of coffee right away." If you're in a store by yourself, make the call while the scammer is still there, if you can do so descretely.
  
• Appearances are deceiving!! The guy that scammed Max "had the appearance of a dignified elderly gentleman." The guy that tried to get me was well-dressed, and at the time I would have bet money that he must have had a very nice job. I would be more-so suspicious of people like that, simply because they're trying to be "discreet," and lower your guard.
  
• Last but not least, be careful. Don't make a scene if something like this happens; just watch what's going on carefully to keep yourself from getting scammed, and complete the transaction as if nothing happened. You never know how dangerous a person can be, especially if you know they're trying to scam you.
  

I plan on printing this out and passing it out to co-workers. This is seriously something everybody that handles a register should know.

[Blackmage]

Uhm, thats a very very common scam. Its listed in most cashier training stuff to watch for that, remember they usually work in twos or more to distract you.

I work customer service i deal with stuff like that a lot...

[Silver Adept]

It's sad that people think to do those sorts of things in the first place. Still, being aware always helps, so thanks, Scrummy. (Although I don't work in retail.)

[ScrumYummy]

[quote="Blackmage"]Uhm, thats a very very common scam. Its listed in most cashier training stuff to watch for that, remember they usually work in twos or more to distract you.

I work customer service i deal with stuff like that a lot...[/quote]

I actually had never heard of it before. And most of the stores I've worked for (which includes Waldenbooks, Gymboree, Icing, Claire's, Artbeat, M3, Wal-Mart, and Sears) never mentioned this scam in their training sessions. In fact, three of the stores mentioned never even put me through formal training

The first time it happened, I didn't think much of it, but when it happened again, within a month of the other one, at the same mall, it really kind of pissed me off. I wanted to make sure people knew about it so that it didn't happen to anybody else =)

[quote="Silver Adept"]It's sad that people think to do those sorts of things in the first place. Still, being aware always helps, so thanks, Scrummy. (Although I don't work in retail.)[/quote]

Yeah...we work so hard for our money, and jerks like this just weasel their way through life. I believe in karma, though.

[Tobias]

aye, the one that i get most times is the "Umm...i gave you a fifty...not a twenty." But you can similarly do the same thing to deal with that situaion:

Like scrums said...make sure you count out your change, and always announce how much they have given you. The last thing, keep their money outside of the register until you have given them their change, and the WHOLE transaction is completed. If they do try to scam you then, you ahve the cash visible and separated that they used to counter them with.

Enough from me...good luck guys in avoiding the harrasment of scammers unanimous!

*explodes*

[ScrumYummy]

I've heard that one, too *nod nod*

Good tip. I forget a lot of times to leave the cash out of the register, and once after I had put it away a guy argued that he had given me a larger bill. So I counted the register right then and there, and of course the drawer was even =)

[Blackmage]

we've had a sign over the time clock for some months now with the 2 most common scams. but at our chain we're also not supposed to do change at the register and if something is fishy you get an office staff to count your till.

[Tobias]

oh, don't get me wrong, I can't do change either...its just that if someone gives you a 20 to pay for a 2 dollar item, i leave it on the keyboard while i fish out his 18 bucks. Then after you give it to them, if they say that they gave you a larger bill, you have their bill right on the keyboard.

Also, announcing (like i said before) will usually scare them away. Also, it invokes them to try to do their scam early. This is where you can throw them off, by your own methods, or the money on the keyboard method (as mentioned above)

~That is all

[Ryu]

That's a really old scam. I've worked at Krogers, Winn-dixie, Wendy's, Subways, TCBY, Blimpies, and Burger King. ALl of them brought up this exact scam. Like Scrum said, you just have to be careful. Go at a pace that you're comfortable with not the customer. That doesn't mean go super slow, just take you time. And liek Scrum said, counting back change can always work wonders. If for anything else, I've caught a many a miscount on my behalf.

I had one system that always worked for me. It's obvious that these guys are going to ussually go for the larger bills cause the higher the amount the easier to confuse. I always kept like 5 twenties in my drawer and kept the rest under the trays with all my 50's and 100's. That way if they tried to pull the one that Tobias mentioned, I would be covered. They would say they gave me a 50 instead of a 20. i would ask them if they were sure. Of course they would say yes. Them I would simply tell them that it's impossible they gave me a 50 because I don't have a 50 in my drawer. At that point they would just ussualy smile and say "My mistake." Of course sometime they honestly thought that they had given me a 50, but it always pays to be safe.

I know when I night-managed at TCBY I would always tell my people about the scam and we would always be making several drops in the safe during the night. That's another trick. Keep your till as low as possible if possible. I know when I worked at Krogers, Win-Dixie, Subways, Blimpie, and TCBY that each had either a safe in the back to drop money or a small drop box. That also just makes counting the register at the end of the night like ten times easier cause there is less money to count. I know I would always automatically drop anything over 50 and try my best to keep around 250 in my drawer.

[Tobias]

ahh...im well versed in that senor...as we have it called at work, the "pick-up" The computer automatically notifies us to call for pickups whenever the drawer doubles itself (so about 250 in this case) What annoys the hell out of the managers is when someone gets lazy, and they end up with a 900 dollar pickup. Its rediculous.

A word of the wise, as I've learned at work (not through experience, but through training): You shouldn't be making too many trips to the safe at night, due to the fact that its easier to stop someone when they have an open drawer in the even of a robbery rather than if you ahve the drawer closed. I know at work, the manager has to actually walk the drawer to the backroom, which is (unfortunately) on the other side of the store. At night, when the baddies are out hte most, a drawer-change/pickup can result in an easy target, since the manager has the money in their hand, and has it open.

I dunno though...thats the rule we use at our store...once there's an hour left, don't call for pickups. But that's also because the safe is across the store-length in B+N...stupid bigass store

*explodes*