*@#$! Scammers

[Whyme]

I don't really know where to put this as co-worker and customer were not sucky. The sucky person here is the scammer. If it needs to be moved, please feel free to move the thread.

Co-worker P is awesome. She's floor, but used to be cashier so we call her when we need help. About a month ago we needed her to cover a break at the service desk.

Old lady (yes, I think old is important here) comes in and asks to send a moneygram. However it's a large one and she would like to send two separate ones. Now, technically we aren't supposed to do that. Over a certain amount on a moneygram requires an ID. I believe for Homeland Security purposes, but I could be wrong about that part. If you break it up into more than one moneygram though, you aren't required to present ID.

P is by the book. She explained we aren't supposed to do this and old lady says she has been able to do it the past few times she's been in. P asks if she could inquire if it was going to a family member or something. Old lady says "No. I won $10,000.00! I have to send this money to Jamaica for tax purposes and then they will release the money to me.". Old lady was quite excited and alarm bells are going off in P's head.

P asks how much is being sent to Jamaica. It's $1500.00! P then asks how many times the lady has done this since finding out she won the $10,000.00. The old lady says this will be the third time and she has two more to go before her winnings are rewarded to her.

P asks the lady to hold on and walks over to tell CSM what's going on. CSM calls, manager who okays the call to police. P is then left to explain to the old woman that we believe she is being scammed .

The woman was confused, then obviously upset. The police did come and were with her awhile. We found out from police that the woman lives in a nursing home. Apparently the scammer called there and "got lucky". From what I understand, they are going to have a hard time tracking down exactly who received this $. She'll probably never see it again. The whole thing was just very sad.

[iviles]

GOOD JOB!!!!!!! Were putting those thing in our stores as we speak so we are all learning the rules at the momment. That was a HUGE red flag! Im just sorry that she had to go through it three times before someone caught on. But wow P just saved that lady alot of pain,suffering, and money.

[Andara Bledin]

Well, at least the scammer won't be getting any more of her money!

But why, oh why, did the previous cashiers just let her send the money into the black pit of scamdom?!?

^-.-^

[Aethian]

Well, at least the scammer won't be getting any more of her money!

But why, oh why, did the previous cashiers just let her send the money into the black pit of scamdom?!?

^-.-^

They probably never asked why she was sending the money.

[Bright_Star]

Always made me wonder that if someone really were to win $10,000 & it was legitimate then they'd take out the required fees & such before sending you the money. To require someone to send a certain amount of money to get money just screams SCAM.
That's a shame that scams such as this are targeted towards the elderly.

[Whyme]

Well, at least the scammer won't be getting any more of her money!

But why, oh why, did the previous cashiers just let her send the money into the black pit of scamdom?!?

^-.-^

Partly because they were new I think. Partly because in our store it's hard to know what to do. One hand, you are supposed to follow policy. On the other hand, unfortunately, managers don't always follow policy. An SC complains enough, causes enough of a fuss, etc, management gives in most of the time. Then we, the ones following policy, look like idiots, then go through the humiliation of serving the SC while SC looks at us with a triumphant smile on their face. I have seen management do things blatantly against policy just to get SCs to shut up.

So, if you're a new cashier at the service desk, do you listen to policy, or listen to customer who might complain to manager who will just make you listen to the customer anyway? We oldies stick to our guns then make management do the transaction so we don't get in trouble. But a nervous new cashier is in between a rock and a hard place.

If management ALWAYS stuck to the policy, there would be no questions and this never would have happened and also our store would have a lot less suckiness.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

They probably never asked why she was sending the money.

A similar thing happens on ebay. A scammer will try to get somebody to pay for a nonexistent item by Moneygram cash transfer or Western Union cash transfer.

The Moneygram or Western Union representative is supposed to ask what the money is being sent for, and if the mark replies that they are paying for an ebay item, they are supposed to stop the transaction from happening.

These kinds of payments are untraceable and unrecoverable once sent. So this poor old lady has lost whatever money she already sent.

[Arucard]

www.419eater.com

I used to do some scambaiting a couple of years ago. I absolutely hate them. I had a few success stories, nothing nearly as impressive as what the owner of that site does to them, but I got a few trophies, some forged documents (One certificate proving they could export grade-a Tribble meat ), and I got one scammer to wait for me until 2am at an airport in Belgium in the middle of winter, and had him chase round a couple of hotels looking for me the next day.

I wouldn't mind getting back into it again, but I have better things to do with my time in the evenings, and can't waste time at work like I used to (new job, one I actually enjoy and am kept busy at, yay me!)

[KellyHabersham]

I love that site! Used to be active in scambaiting myself, but then it got to where I wasn't receiving many e-mails from scammers, and the ones whom I did write to, either disappeared before the "business transaction" was really discussed, or they never wrote back at all.

[Horsetuna]

I tried scambaiting. Their emails never worked.

Poor old lady.