Archived Your Weirdest Scam/Fraud Moment?

[3LetterDevil]

Yesterday was "fake rx day" at the pharmacy. We normally don't get many, but I had 3. One was so blatantly altered, I couldn't withhold my laughter as I denied the guy's rx. He changed it from a 10 day supply to a 135 day supply. Another had a "normal header/footer and 4pt font for the rx. The third one had a different color of ink and pen type to change the Adderall to XR & strength from 10 to 40 which would never be dosed 5x daily & doesnt come in 40mg. Note to scammers: if you're going to fake rxs, at least make them plausible.

 

[phibot]

I had a guy come back to the electronics counter with a couple greeting cards and a few prepaid visas..not fooling anyone Han Brolo.
Anyway, he whips out his checkbook and I think "aw fug, here we go." I dunno if it's a company-wide policy, but our store says "if someone is using a check for a gift card, call AP."

So I get on the walkie and say "hey (AP ETL's name here), I'm having an issue with my register back here, can you please come help me out with it?"
She responds with "The front lanes aren't busy, call the GSTL."
So I then said "Hey (insert TPS' name here), can you come back and look at this?" thinking "really? can one of you catch on?"

The goal here is to act smooth and not raise the guy's suspicion..and then it happens.

My electronics phone goes off. I apologize to the guy and say "while we wait for help to come back, lemme take this call."

It's the goddamn AP ETL, and she tells me to look at his ID and tell her the guy's name.

Why. Are. You. In. AP.

I ended up walking him up front saying that my register was broken and he might have better luck at guest service. Not sure what ended up happening, but from then on I never took that ETL seriously again.

 

[3LetterDevil]

I had a guy come back to the electronics counter with a couple greeting cards and a few prepaid visas..not fooling anyone Han Brolo.
Anyway, he whips out his checkbook and I think "aw fug, here we go." I dunno if it's a company-wide policy, but our store says "if someone is using a check for a gift card, call AP."

So I get on the walkie and say "hey (AP ETL's name here), I'm having an issue with my register back here, can you please come help me out with it?"
She responds with "The front lanes aren't busy, call the GSTL."
So I then said "Hey (insert TPS' name here), can you come back and look at this?" thinking "really? can one of you catch on?"

The goal here is to act smooth and not raise the guy's suspicion..and then it happens.

My electronics phone goes off. I apologize to the guy and say "while we wait for help to come back, lemme take this call."

It's the goddamn AP ETL, and she tells me to look at his ID and tell her the guy's name.

Why. Are. You. In. AP.

I ended up walking him up front saying that my register was broken and he might have better luck at guest service. Not sure what ended up happening, but from then on I never took that ETL seriously again.

We had almost the exact thing happen in pharmacy. I had a feeling the guest was trying to use a fake $100 bill and they basically refused to go elsewhere. I called the pharmacist over and nudged her while I told her, "the register is acting up" and she was smart enough to get it, punched a few keys, and made it beep. Guests asked me to try the other one and I told her it had crashed and was rebooting. She said she would wait....RPh calls for AP, who isn't working, so LOD comes over. Try the "register isn't working" * NUDGE, NUDGE* and she asks me, "are you okay? Why did you hit me?" SMDH!!!

 

[Loki]

At my old store we had two people come in and attempt to buy 30 pairs of jeans with coupons that weren't legit and it was so obvious. I don't know any company that gives away coupons for $18.53.

 

[Hardlinesmaster]

When I was making a purchase at the electronics boat recently, a newb was winding up the spider-wrap just taken off my purchase & asked "I wonder what would happen if I cut this?"
The veteran TM said "Let me get my earplugs on before you find out."
Newb: "Really? That loud?"
Veteran TM: "Yeah. Really."
Three kids nearby dropped the spider-wrapped items they were carrying & walked out.

I did put a broken spider wrap with a loud buzzing on their top drawer their desk.

 

[redeye58]

You wicked.....

 

[Green4Life]

One summer while I was working at home (OH College Student who Lived in PA) I had someone come up to my lane with $250 in Visa GCs and a couple other random things. He starts writing a check and of course I ask him for his ID. He proceeds to give me the worst OHIO fake ID I've ever seen. What made it so bad was the fact that he forgot the either the magstripe or the 2D barcode on the back, not to mention the matte, dull, and misaligned hologram. It was so bad it couldn't even fool the drunk bouncers at the bars the freshmen/HS kids sneak into.

Of course AP was gone for the night, both the GSA and LOD were in the office, and I had no walkie.

That was second only to the other person who tried to buy VGCs with a "company" check and didn't even know how to fill it out.

 

[NKG]

Lady today was trying to use coupons to get free stuff in hopes ill give it to her stuff for free. She had a $3 off swifter starter kit amd was trying to buy the refills that are $4. I was like you need to buy the items on the coupons or it won' t take it off. I was freaking out because AP was behind me the whole time. I ended up accepting one coupon and made sure twice i could take it. The weirdest part of the whole transaction was she asked me if i was Indian and clearly i am not....

 

[aj76257]

Today a guy bought a $400 Visa card and his credit card wasn't automatically declined. I can't tell if the sale was legit or not.

 

[sher]

Almost every time I have people with stolen cards, they try their best to dress fancy, like it'll fool you into thinking they can afford what they're buying. I had this lady who was wearing this ill-fitting brown pinstriped pantsuit and her midriff region was all hanging out, she was wearing these chunky 90s boots and her hair was just no. She had like a couple hundred dollars in clothes and a gazillion dollars in gift cards and I was just scanning and side eying. None of her cards went through and she played dumb, but she was also like "look this is my card! See my ID!" And I didn't even accuse her of anything. The I'd was from like Minnesota and the name was a man's name lol. I died. It didn't go through of course.

Another time, I had this guy in some old jeans and really old Velcro strap sneakers and this blazer that once was black but was more of a dusty dark grey with ripped pockets. He smelled awfullll. He had like $800 in mostly food and I figured I'd just scan it because it won't go back to the floor anyway. He had like 7 packs of hot dogs, 13 different types of bread, batteries, socks, sauces, meats, hot pockets. The card went through, though... And I was so shocked. I'm 99% sure it wasn't his card.

 

[MrGSTLman]

I had two in the last week. First guy tried to return a whole bunch of baby merchandise he claimed was a gift. Not being AP I processed the return to the point I could (the system maxed him before he got everything returned). Once I handed him the gift card I reprinted the receipt and once he was out of view I handed the receipt to AP, who determined he took the items off the floor prior. ETL-AP came in and post-voided the giftcard, and then confronted the guy when he came in and wondered why the gift card he was trying to use didn't work. TL;DR guy was trespassed and walked away after owning up to trying to scam us and gave us back the merchandise he walked out with.

Second guy was last night. Stood at the service desk for 20 minutes before leaving and then miraculously came back with a Dyson vacuum. Said he couldn't find the receipt, so I went to "find" the receipt and called AP to let him know. AP determined he picked the item off the floor 10 minutes prior. I proceeded to deny his return flat out. He was spooked when he saw AP waiting at the door and gave the merchandise back. Tried the same routine at the store next door and got arrested after our AP tipped him off.

 

[Deli Ninja]

This lady's done this twice now that I know of.

Lady decides it's time to get some money out of Target. Starts calling the Deli once a day, asking for a "Deli Manager." It's "nothing bad" she says, but she won't talk to any regular TMs. When she gets a "Deli Manager" on the phone, whether it's the ETL or TL, she walks in (first time was to the Deli, second was to Guest Services) and claims she bought several party trays for a retirement party 2-3 weeks ago and one had a hair in it. No photos, no receipt, and we don't have her order form on file. Everyone involved is skeptical that this actually happened, but whatever.
How about a no-receipt return?
No driver's license or ID, "forgot it." Won't give her name. Leaves.

The kicker? Both times, we hadn't made ANY party trays in at least 2 months. I'm sure we'll see her again.

 

[TTGOz]

Had a guy come to self checkout and scanned a gift card for $500. I asked him "Wow $500?" and he goes "Yeah I'm gonna split it onto these cards" and he scanned a gift card that had maybe $18 on it and then another one that was empty and then scanned another one that bought the whole $500 gift card and had $167 left over on it.

I'm told our GSTL. She just said "ok" and walked away lol. No idea if she cared or thought I was dumber than a brick because there was some obvious reason he had to buy a $500 and pay with it using another Target Giftcard that had at least another $500's on it and had $167 left over. Oh well, not my loss of money.

 

[pinkp2ie]

When two guys tried to purchase about $500 in clothes & phone & some sporting goods merch with a lady who had an Asian name.

 

[3LetterDevil]

Had a lady ty and pay for her rx with prepaid gift cards that clearly said some gas station name on them. Needless to say, they didn't go through

The other day, we had a customer try and return meds that they had purchased at another store. Supposedly, the other store told her she could bring them back to any CVS in Target. First off, we can't take meds back once they leave the store, it's against state law. Second, in the rare cases we DO (if the store made a mistake,) the meds have to be taken back to the store where they were purchased. Here's the kicker, though....she didn't have the meds, only the receipts, and they were from AUGUST and SEPTEMBER!!!

 

[RedCardBorn]

This one night I was closing Guest Service, everything normal so far, me and the other GS TM chatting and working all fine. Then I see this guy come up with a box of those large tall fans. He puts it on the service desk with some of the cardboard that was supposed to be inside the box, saying "My wife didn't know how to put it back in the box" So I check and scan receipt, ask him whats wrong with it and he tells me that he just doesn't need it. So I open the box and check inside and the fan is in HORRIBLE condition, dusty, bent, and even scratched. I asked him when he got it, it was dated for literally last week on the receipt, but I can for sure say that he did not buy this exact fan last week, for it was even leaking water. Luckily my GSTL walks by to check on gobacks and I low key wave her over for help without getting the guests attention. She then asks him the same questions and which the guest replies actually yeah it just came like that. So me, the GSTL, and the other GS TM just look at each other with a 'you can't be serious' face on, and the guest just said "Store credit would be okay" to then my GSTL replies, we would only be able to exchange it for the EXACT same item (hehhehe) the guy looks a little bit panicked but agrees, and luckily again everything else went smooth and we exchanged him the same exact fan. Only if LOD could have denied the return, (Cause he will probably go return that one to a different Target) but our LOD just told our GSTL to do it for an exchange, which kinda frustrated it all of us. I don't get why people think we will fall for their stupid lies.

TL;DR Guest wanted to return a fan in horrible condition, claiming it came like that and that he bought it 2 days ago. Obviously was not the same fan that was bought, GSTL wanted to deny return, LOD said just to exchange it for the same EXACT fan.

 

[redeye58]

Was at Guest service defecting out merch when a kid comes up with a beat-up, rusted & filthy folding chair that looked like he'd pulled it out of a trash heap.
Seems he wanted to return it because "it was poor quality & didn't hold up" (from what? a tornado?)
Denied because he didn't have a receipt.

 

[OGP Girl]

Had a lady tell me I was so, "pure and innocent," before trying to pass off switched clearance tags on toys and taking a tag off a tooth brush holder and butting it on a $40 bag...like yeah I'm that stupid.

She also worked at Target, so she is no longer employed!

I think she was also high so that's what made me nervous, because people can be so unpredictable while intoxicated.

 

[soyaxo]

Oh gosh there was a guest who was clearly high on something intense at the fitting room the other day. He talked to me with this look in his dilated pupils the whole time. "How many items can I take in the fitting room? O_O" I was extremely frightened. He came out with all the clothing but left the hangers because as he told me, "I can't figure out how to hang these back up." I felt so uncomfortable the whole time he looked at me with those eyes. It freaks me out just thinking about it again. Yet, not the most frightening fitting room guest. He didn't try to steal anything, but he tried on three of the exact same items which alarmed me.

 

[AmICrazy]

Just had someone call a few night claiming to be the C.O.O. of Target. He needed my help to resolve a guest issue. He then said that he was working with a guest that bought a prepaid Visa card that was not working. I really most thing the longer you have worked for Target the stupider you get.

 

[Birdilible]

We used to have a guy who always tried returning those expensive electric toothbrushes off his ID and never let us look at it or touch it, but instead insisted on himself reading off the ID numbers to us. Like no...

 

[Frontlanegirl]

We used to have a guy who always tried returning those expensive electric toothbrushes off his ID and never let us look at it or touch it, but instead insisted on himself reading off the ID numbers to us. Like no...

I love denying returns to people whose ID's do not match them. Whenever I have someone new at the SD I tell them to scan the back of the card and look at the pic to make sure it is a match. Once I asked a guy, whose ID was clearly not his, what his name was. Ummm....he couldn't tell me and walked away. hehe

 

[3LetterDevil]

Had someone yesterday want to buy a vacuum with her HSA card. Ummm....no.

 

[SoCalMama]

I had a lady at the SD with a Hawaii ID that I flipped over to scan. The drawing on the back of the ID was the Golden Gate Bridge. Now unless every State just loves San Francisco so much that they all decided to use the Golden Gate, I'm pretty sure that your ID is not going to work. I mean, it may work, but I am not taking it. Sheesh.

 

[Pelon1071]

I had a lady at the SD with a Hawaii ID that I flipped over to scan. The drawing on the back of the ID was the Golden Gate Bridge. Now unless every State just loves San Francisco so much that they all decided to use the Golden Gate, I'm pretty sure that your ID is not going to work. I mean, it may work, but I am not taking it. Sheesh.

Geash, racist much? Haven't you heard of the Golden Gate Bridge of Honolulu?