Archived Your Weirdest Scam/Fraud Moment?

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I had a new ETL/cashier accuse me of fraud over the weekend. Went shopping at my store with a stack of coupons (all of which I had items to match.) Grand total before coupons was over $200. New ETL (didn't know at the time who she was) sees my stack of coupons and comes over and tells cashier it's time for her break. Starts scanning coupons. Very first one is for free item (not BOGO, manufacturer coupon for free item with hologram and everything-got it for emailing Febreeze about defective spray) and system rejects it. She tells me, "I'm sorry, we can't accept this coupon, you don't have the correct item." I tell her I do and start going through the bags to get said item. Pull it out and show her. She takes it off. Scans a couple more, another one rejects, again, (eye roll) "we can't accept this coupon, you must not have the correct item..." Again, I go through the bag and get said item...she accepts it. Next coupon rejects, "we can't accept this coupon, you must not have the correct item..." (Tide is sitting right in seat of cart) ummm....it's right here....basically half of my coupons (most from the newspaper) rejected and I had to dig the items out from the bags to show her I did, in fact, have the items! At the end of the transaction, she says, "well, I'm shocked you actually HAD all the items you had coupons for!" The ENTIRE time, my TM discount card was sitting next to the card reader! I was about to put it away when she stepped in. I picked it up, kind of flashed it at her, and said, "do you really think I'd try and scam the system WHERE I WORK?!?!" She says, "well, you never know...." I passed the GSTL on my way out and asked her who the "power-tripper" was and she told me it's a new ETL, so I told her what happened and how I didn't appreciate how she treated me. Apparently, she's done it to other TMs as well. GSTL said she'd let the STL know.

BTW, grand total after coupons, Cartwheel, TM discount, & red card? $83.76 😎
 
TallAPGuy said:
I wish we were permitted to deny those fuckers. 🙁
Our STL would have our heads on a platter if we tried implementing that kind of thing.
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damn that sucks. I had to call my etl-ap over to GS to help me because a drunk guy refused to believe he couldnt return a shelf because he bought it in april with no reciept and no upc or dpci or anything. While that happened a guy walked up and pulled out 4 things of shampoo and she asked "do you have a reciept" and his reply was no and then she said " well come back when you have a reciept". I had to hold in my laughter.
 
Not really weird, in fact, pretty typical....just off that it was 3 in a row.

The other day, had 3 in a row. First guy comes up: rx for ADHD med. First things out of his mouth are, "I've never been here and I don't have insurance so I'll pay cash." Dead giveaway, so I of course do a central search and, SURPRISE! He's in the system with Medicaid. Enter the Rx, ask for ID, scan it in with the RX, and guess what? It's too soon AND he's hit his rx limit. "But I don't have insurance, so I don't know why it's too soon?" Me: well, then I suggest you contact the state because someone is using your information to fill prescriptions. Him: well, can I just pay cash for it? My ex took them. Me: I'm sorry, since the system has rejected as too soon, we can't override it, even for cash. I note the refill too soon date on the Rx while he's arguing with me, fold it back up and hand it back to him, he leaves.

Next lady comes in with Norco rx. Basically same scenario. Even the same insurance???

Third guy comes in with the "holy trinity:" Norco, soma, Xanax 2mg, all large quantities. Never been there, no insurance. Find him as well. All are too soon (by 3 weeks, which means he JUST got the same thing within the last week.) He REALLY pitched a fit, though, so I told him I'd "check with my pharmacist and see what we could do..." While I'm over by the pharmacist, he runs a report and finds out last fill was 3 days prior, different doctor, different pharmacy.) We note last fill date and RTS dates & pharmacist goes to talk to him, tells him he ran a report and he JUST got them filled. Patient gives sob story about how they were "stolen by ex, yada, yada, yada..." PM tells him if he brings in police report, we will fill, but not otherwise. Guy calls him a few choice names, grabs Rxs and leaves....PM tells him to "have a nice day."😀
 
dannyy315 said:
I've had guests peel off tags from the travel section to cover expensive items before.
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I once had a guy do this with several different expensive items at once. Truth be told, I probably wouldn't have even noticed if he had just done it with one, but when you've got an electric toothbrush, fancy razor, and electronic item and your total comes out to under $20, you tend to take note. Lord, watching him squirm as I curiously peeled off those fake barcodes gave me far too much pleasure.
 
sunshineyellow said:
I once had a guy do this with several different expensive items at once. Truth be told, I probably wouldn't have even noticed if he had just done it with one, but when you've got an electric toothbrush, fancy razor, and electronic item and your total comes out to under $20, you tend to take note. Lord, watching him squirm as I curiously peeled off those fake barcodes gave me far too much pleasure.
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Same, it's very satisfying busting a crook
 
I don't know for sure is this was a scam or not but felt like sharing it anyway. I had a man and a lady walk up to the Fitting Room. The man hold up a finger and says "one". I ask what they're trying on and he insist the lady with him is here to try on a pair of shoes. No other clothing at all, just shoes. He then says they will be back for her to try on jackets. Neither of these are things that anyone needs privacy to know if it will fit. I tell him we don't allow people to use the stalls to try on shoes but she is more than welcome to sit on one of the stools in front of the desk. They left immediately after that and never came back.
 
I was working guest service and sold a big box of baby wipes and the lady came back 30 minutes later with the box and receipt and said there was a pack missing. I said, wow, I don't remember this box being damaged when I sold it to you, how weird is that?
She turned red and grabbed the box and ran out.
 
We had a regular extreme couponer (we have several) but this one was pretty shady. She used coupons that did not match up to items and often the cashier would hit K1 anyway because when you're in a hurry and you see a jug of Tide, and there's a coupon for Tide, you just push it through without reading the coupon.
Said customer always came in when we were really busy, she timed it well. She also only went to new cashier's lanes and had 3 to 5 transactions in one sitting.
One day AP interrupted her while a new cashier was ringing her up and voided out EVERYTHING and started over and refused to use the bad coupons or the fake printed ones.

I have not seen that couponer in the store ever since.
 
My store is the highest theft/fraud in the region and I'd esstimate that I do 2-4k per shift in what I know are stolen credit cards.. asing for ID definitely scares away a good amount of them.

Had a guy the other day walk in with his friend for a PS4 for his "nephew" - card gets declined they leave - come back 30 mins later, first guy stands in a different aisle, main guy comes back buys the PS4 this time.. 2 minutes after that his friend (who thinks i don't recognize that he came in before with his friend) asks me the difference between xbox one and ps4.. he tells me he only owns an xbox one and then asks to buy a PS4 controller - say what?

Guy comes in the other day with another guy and they buy (2) ps4's - asking for ps4 or ipad are the biggest giveaways - they use target giftcards and the one guy says to the other in front of me "i told you it would work, if you need any other credit cards or gift cards just let me know" - they leave and 10 minutes later one of them comes back to buy $600 worth of ebay giftcards and I say "so how much do you sell those PS4's on the street for?" he responds with "like $300 we are wholesalers" so I go "so you pay $400 at target and sell for $300? do you even know what a wholesaler is? lmao" - he then gets quiet and leaves.

Throw in the "i need an ipad" - which one? - "doesnt matter" or the "i need an apple watch" - which one? "one for a girl and one for a boy" - sorry doesn't work like that.

In 5 weeks of working here, I could write a book or comedy sketch.
 
jpm00727 said:
My store is the highest theft/fraud in the region and I'd esstimate that I do 2-4k per shift in what I know are stolen credit cards.. asing for ID definitely scares away a good amount of them.

Had a guy the other day walk in with his friend for a PS4 for his "nephew" - card gets declined they leave - come back 30 mins later, first guy stands in a different aisle, main guy comes back buys the PS4 this time.. 2 minutes after that his friend (who thinks i don't recognize that he came in before with his friend) asks me the difference between xbox one and ps4.. he tells me he only owns an xbox one and then asks to buy a PS4 controller - say what?

Guy comes in the other day with another guy and they buy (2) ps4's - asking for ps4 or ipad are the biggest giveaways - they use target giftcards and the one guy says to the other in front of me "i told you it would work, if you need any other credit cards or gift cards just let me know" - they leave and 10 minutes later one of them comes back to buy $600 worth of ebay giftcards and I say "so how much do you sell those PS4's on the street for?" he responds with "like $300 we are wholesalers" so I go "so you pay $400 at target and sell for $300? do you even know what a wholesaler is? lmao" - he then gets quiet and leaves.

Throw in the "i need an ipad" - which one? - "doesnt matter" or the "i need an apple watch" - which one? "one for a girl and one for a boy" - sorry doesn't work like that.

In 5 weeks of working here, I could write a book or comedy sketch.
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I don't get it.
 
A couple weeks ago I had a guy buy $2000 worth of Visa giftcards in cash, but it was all new $100 bills and they all appeared to have watermarks. They also passed the counterfeit scanner (although I don't trust that thing), but it still seemed very shady.

When I was brand new, someone came to my lane with a receipt and asked me to do missed coupons for her, only they were all fake. I hadn't been trained to look for that though, so the GSA had to come over and deal with it.
 
By far the biggest scams I've seen are the ones where we get young girls coming in trying to buy whole carts full of over $750 in clothes, makeup, and jewelry, and $1000 or more in VISA. They'll play really friendly, chatting me up, even flirting with me. But I have no sympathy when I know they're trying to game the system.

My favorite, and wierdest for me, was for one of these people. When I asked for ID, which we do for verification when people buy over $100 in VISA, she showed me an ID for a "Thomas" something rather. I looked at the ID, than at her, and said slowly "You're not Thomas..." to which she stammered she was about to start transitioning for a sex change and I wasn't allowed to discriminate. I looked again, looking at the picture on the ID. "So you are a young black girl, and you'll be transitioning to an old Asian man...?" At which point she realized she was screwed, and left in a huff complaining how she'd sue. Okay darling.
 
This older couple in electronics asks me to unlock the Splatoon bundle from the case. As I'm walking their stuff to the boat they ask me to unlock two more. Oooooookay then. They start showing me their phones and they have these really sketchy looking coupons that were probably made on MS paint or something. Of course they don't accept and because this was later at night, AP had already left do I promptly send them up to guest services and call an LOD up there as well. Turns out the GSTLs know exactly who these people are and tell them to get the fuck out basically.
We also have this guy who comes to electronics a lot. He always walks around with large wads of money in his hands and he always talks about having his own business. I've never dealt with him personally but he's known to ask for HBA items and batteries on gift receipts.
 
Keep in mind im a new team member but have tons of retail experience. I was back up cashiering on my 2nd week and this guy comes up with an alarm clock. First goes the sign back there said this was $5 but it rang up $11.99. I was like we can check the price and was like no just ring me up. So he pulls out a wad of cash and hands me $15. I put it in the register and hand back the change. The conversation goes:

Guy: i thought i gave you a twenty
Me: no $15
Guy: are you sure? I gave you a twenty
Me: it was $15
Guy: im pretty sure its a twenty.

At this point, im like geez im gonna have to call the lod/ap/gstl/ national guard to help me. He finally goes maybe i did give you $15 when he realizes im holding my ground on not giving him an extra $5.
 
Nokiddiegloves said:
Keep in mind im a new team member but have tons of retail experience. I was back up cashiering on my 2nd week and this guy comes up with an alarm clock. First goes the sign back there said this was $5 but it rang up $11.99. I was like we can check the price and was like no just ring me up. So he pulls out a wad of cash and hands me $15. I put it in the register and hand back the change. The conversation goes:

Guy: i thought i gave you a twenty
Me: no $15
Guy: are you sure? I gave you a twenty
Me: it was $15
Guy: im pretty sure its a twenty.

At this point, im like geez im gonna have to call the lod/ap/gstl/ national guard to help me. He finally goes maybe i did give you $15 when he realizes im holding my ground on not giving him an extra $5.
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When you get a douce bag like that, I tell them I will have the manager have security check the cameras. That makes them agree with me very quickly!
 
Mine was a quick change artist. Handed me a 100 asked for 20s but grabbed the 100 back. Watched it on camera and he tried to distract me by buying something that cost a dollar and demanding I give him his change.
 
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