Scamming old coot

[Lace Neil Singer]

No offence to the elderly, but the "old coot" is one of the most annoying SCs in the world. This particular one was either scamming us deliberately, or just extremely stubborn. Both are likely. He insisted that he'd given me a fifty pound note, when in actual fact he'd given me a tenner. This was proved easily by the fact that there was no fifty in my till but he still wouldn't give up. He even accused me of stealing the fifty out the till!

Eventually, I called Craig the manager over and he told Old Coot to leave his phone number and that we would get back to him tomorrow after the till was counted. Next day, after the till was counted, it showed that I was right and Old Coot was wrong. Craig called up Old Coot and told him so; he still refused to believe this and insisted that we had stolen his money and he wasn't going to come back.

[mjr]

he still refused to believe this and insisted that we had stolen his money and he wasn't going to come back.

Which kinda defeats the purpose of the scam, doesn't it??

But at least you get to keep this imaginary money that was "stolen".

[Ben_Who]

You know, one of the weirder things I've come to realize both in human observation and in being on this site is that a lot of scammers simply don't believe their scams are scams. Some of it is self-denial: "I'm not a scammer! I would NEVER do anything like that!"

Sometimes they think that if they got away with something, then technically it's allowed by policy and so is therefore not a scam. (Lookin' at my roommate, here, who would return video games to stores he hadn't bought them from.) My sister would never have considered herself a thief, even though she spent most of her adolescence with one hand in our mother's purse and the other in my wallet. Life, she felt, was unfair, and she was just getting her due. That $20 that she stole from one of us was hers anyway, or it would be if there were any balance in the Universe.

Chances are this old dude just lost his fifty somewhere and didn't want to admit it to himself.

[WishfulSpirit]

From my (limited) studies of psychology, that sounds about right. Most convicted rapists refuse to see themselves as rapists, for example. "She was drunk but I could tell she wanted it" or the ever-popular "she wouldn't have worn that skirt if she didn't want it." This is a milder example, but humans have lots of ways to convince themselves that the rules don't apply to them.

[Argabarga]

From my (limited) studies of psychology, that sounds about right. Most convicted rapists refuse to see themselves as rapists, for example. "She was drunk but I could tell she wanted it" or the ever-popular "she wouldn't have worn that skirt if she didn't want it." This is a milder example, but humans have lots of ways to convince themselves that the rules don't apply to them.

On the micro-scale, this is why we get people who won't pay parking meters, and then rage at the ticket, in their own mind, they were only breaking the rules a teency-weency-itty-bitty-bit, so they don't deserve ANY punishment at all for not following it. Failing to see a $10 fine is, accordingly, a teency-weency-itty-bitty penalty.... nope, they did NOTHING wrong, Da Man (tm) has it out for them and is just running up the cost of life on "honest" folk like them....

[Lace Neil Singer]

Of course, there is still the possibility that Old Coot was just being a stubborn old git. XD He's been in since, but hasn't said a word about his "stolen" money.

[WishfulSpirit]

Same reason people speed. The rules are for little old ladies, not them. This one seems to get done more by men, IMHO, while women are more likely to steal office supplies and such.

[MoonCat]

The old guy could also have forgotten that he cracked that fifty earlier in the day. I've actually done that; although I just sort of panicked and thought "what happened to that $20 I had??" But I never accused a cashier of stealing from me. After thinking about it I would usually remember where I spent the money.

Arga, the parking thing makes me think of how, once or twice every year, a letter will appear in our local paper from someone complaining about how TERRIBLE the parking situation is downtown and what a RIP-OFF it is to ticket someone because "there was no sign" or they "didn't see" a sign or my favorite - "there was nowhere else to park!" Then they whine about how "this is why no one goes downtown" (correction: LOTS of people come downtown because of the recent revival of that area and all the many new things to do there). For the record, there are numerous parking lots downtown but you have to PAY to use them. There are also quite a few park & ride lots where people can park their cars and ride the train downtown - but they'd have to pay for the train.

[Lace Neil Singer]

Arga, the parking thing makes me think of how, once or twice every year, a letter will appear in our local paper from someone complaining about how TERRIBLE the parking situation is downtown and what a RIP-OFF it is to ticket someone because "there was no sign" or they "didn't see" a sign or my favorite - "there was nowhere else to park!" Then they whine about how "this is why no one goes downtown" (correction: LOTS of people come downtown because of the recent revival of that area and all the many new things to do there). For the record, there are numerous parking lots downtown but you have to PAY to use them. There are also quite a few park & ride lots where people can park their cars and ride the train downtown - but they'd have to pay for the train.

Like the SC that complained about being ticketed for parking in the disabled parking; she apparently thought that just cuz she had reproduced, that meant she could park in a disabled space. She got a ticket and came inside and whined about it... um, firstly the car park belongs to the council and second, you are not disabled! Having a child doesn't mean you can't walk a few feet.

[greensinestro]

he wasn't going to come back.

See? At least he won't be back to try this again. Let him try this someplace else.

[RetailSlave]

I had an elderly woman try the scam a few years back. I rang up her items, told her the total, she handed me her money and I said, "Out of (amount)?" and she said yes. I made her change and counted it back to her. She walked away from me, got has far as the door, then came back and said I had given her the wrong change, that I had shorted her $20. I assured her that she had gotten the right change, and she just stood there insisting that I had cheated her..and then she turned on the tears. I called for our Service Coordinator to do an audit of the drawer, but a drop had been done on the till and since it wasn't a drawer that was on an audit, they didn't record the amount of the drop. I explained to her that all we could do was take her name and number and when the cash office came in in the morning they would count the drawer and if it was over she could come in and get her money. She turned on the waterworks big time and said, "But I need that money tonight!" I called the Store Director in Charge and he came up and tried to tell her the same thing. She just kept crying and saying she needed the money tonight, not in the morning. So he turned to me and said to give her the $20 out of my drawer. I did so, but I insisted that he fill out a paid out slip for my drawer and sign it.
Cash office came in the next morning and counted the drawer. You guessed it..it was exactly $20 short. Granny had scammed the store and only the Paid Out slip kept me from being on Cash Control audit.

[wolfie]

I explained to her that all we could do was take her name and number and when the cash office came in in the morning they would count the drawer and if it was over she could come in and get her money. She turned on the waterworks big time and said, "But I need that money tonight!"
(snip)
Cash office came in the next morning and counted the drawer. You guessed it..it was exactly $20 short. Granny had scammed the store and only the Paid Out slip kept me from being on Cash Control audit.

Proof of the rule that the more the customer insists on NOT implementing a security precaution before paying the money out, the greater the need to implement it.

[eltf177]

I'm glad you covered your ass, RetailSlave. Did your manager get in trouble for this?