I cannot believe I fell for it.

[KiaKat]

Mods, if this belongs in 'Oops,' please move. I'm torn between the two forums.

Let this serve as a warning to all customer service workers, no matter how long you've been in the business.

I got scammed today. For the first time in over a decade of working service jobs.

For $100.

In what has got to be one of the most classic and well-known scams.

Man comes in. Man talks ear off employee (who is in store alone, and distracted to begin with). Man picks out reasonably-priced item, unremarkable in most ways, and pays with a large bill. Man continues to talk, peppering the (one-sided) conversation with numbers. Man claims that change is wrong (in this case that I gave too much) and asks to see bill. Man takes bill while lecturing about necessity of counting change correctly. Man leaves, with money and wine.

I have stopped this scam many a time before. Not today, my friends. Today I got caught. And I feel stupid for having been caught.

Lesson learned. If someone I don't know tries to pay with a large bill, and I'm the only one in the store, my response is, 'I'm sorry, but I don't have enough change for that.'

The kicker is that I had an inkling that I shouldn't accept the bill - that I should have told him that I just couldn't break it. But, instead of listening to my instincts, I'm $100 poorer, and a bit wiser.

Well, a bit less of an idiot, anyway.

[Iris Kojiro]

It happens to the best of us, Kia. The only thing you can do is learn from it and do your best to put it behind you.

[KiaKat]

*nods*

And this guy was good. A real professional. I've come up against a few before, but never one this skilled. He knew *exactly* how to misdirect me.

Won't happen again. At least, not that way, and not that man.

[Iris Kojiro]

It's a shame that people use their gifts of oratory and quick thinking for the purpose of stealing as opposed to a legitimate profession. But if that were true, we wouldn't have this site...

*gives hugs and cookies and toddles off to work the night job*

I can only hope you don't get into too much trouble.

[KiaKat]

Well, I'll pay in the missing money out of my pocket, so the store won't be out, and probably will have to listen to a lecture or something from one of the owners, but I expect that they'll just be happy that the money isn't coming out of their pockets.

Although one of the owners likes to give me a hard time (in a teasing way, although I've had to put the kibosh on it a couple times), so I'm sure this isn't the last I'll hear of it.

[Jester]

Man claims that change is wrong (in this case that I gave too much) and asks to see bill. Man takes bill while lecturing about necessity of counting change correctly.

"Here it is, sir. See? A $100, just like I said it was. And here's your correct change." All said while NOT giving him the bill back.

No, I'm not trying to give you shit. Just showing you another defense for this kind of subterfuge. There really is no reason for a customer to ask to "see the bill" and take it back.

Kia, sorry about this happening to you, but hopefully it will serve as an example for others on the board as to what not to do.

[reasoned-unreasonableness]

had similar thing happen to me. except i was pricing a small card collection and the guy had two really old cards he assured me were first edition which is something since this card game is on its 27th or so set release so these first edition was extremely rare but i knew it was third and only worth around $5 rather then the first edition $75. so while im pricing his stuff looking through the small print of the card's worth in accordance to the set he keeps going on about first editions and cause its stuck in my mind i stop at first edition price and give him the worth for that. of course he didn't gain much since it was store credit and we didn't lose much since the items he got we apparently didn't have according to the computer.