PG Music Home Forums General Discussion Off-Topic BEWARE: CREDIT CARD SCAM - YET AGAIN!

December 7, 2011 8:12 AM
Subject: Fw: Fwd: check your receipts, new scam!



WITH THE CHRISTMAS SEASON COMING UP THIS IS REALLY IMPORTANT. PLEASE PASS THIS ALONG!!!!!
CHECK YOUR RECEIPTS BEFORE LEAVING ANY CASHIER'S STATION!!!!!

THIS COULD HAPPEN ANYWHERE.

It happened at Wal-Mart (Supercenter Store #1279,
10411 N Freeway 45, Houston , TX 77037 a month ago.

I bought a bunch of stuff, over $150, & I glanced at my receipt as the cashier was handing me the bags. I saw a cash-back of $40. I told her I didn't request a cash back & to delete it.

She said I'd have to take the $40 because she couldn't delete it. I told her to call a supervisor.

Supervisor came & said I'd have to take it! I said NO! Taking the $40 would be a cash advance against my Discover & I wasn't paying interest on a cash advance!!!!! If they couldn't delete it then they would have to delete the whole order.

So the supervisor had the cashier delete the whole order & re-scan everything!

The second time I looked at the electronic pad before I signed & a cash-back of $20 popped up. At that point I told the cashier & she deleted it.

The total came out right. The cashier agreed that the electronic pad must be defective. (yeah, right!)

Obviously the cashier knew the electronic pad wasn't defective because she NEVER offered me the $40 at the beginning.

Can you imagine how many people went through before me & at the end of her shift how much money she pocketed?

Just to alert everyone. My coworker went to Milford , DE Wal-Mart last week.
She had her items rung up by the cashier. The cashier hurried her along and didn't give her a receipt.

She asked the cashier for a receipt and the cashier was annoyed and gave it to her.
My coworker didn't look at her receipt until later that night. The receipt showed that she asked for $20 cash back. SHE DID NOT ASK FOR CASH BACK!

My coworker called Wal-Mart who investigated but could not see the cashier pocket the money. She then called her niece who works for the bank and her niece told her This is a new scam. The cashier will key in that you asked for cash back and then hand it to her friend who is the next person in line.

Please, please, please check your receipts right away when using credit or debit cards!

This is NOT limited to Wal-Mart, although they are the largest retailer so they have the most incidents.

I am adding to this....My husband and I were in Wal-Mart North Salisbury and paying with a credit card. When my husband went to sign the credit card signer, he just happened to notice there was a $20 cash back added. He told the cashier that he did not ask nor want cash back and she said this machine has been messing up and she canceled it.
We didn't think anything of it until we read this email.

I wonder how many "seniors" have been, or will be, "stung" by this one????

THIS SCAM CAN BE DONE ANYWHERE, AT ANY RETAIL OR WHOLESALE LOCATION!!!

BEFORE LEAVING THE CASHIER'S STATION!!!!!
CHECK YOUR RECEIPT
BEFORE LEAVING THE STAND. I'VE SEEN PEOPLE DO JUST THAT. NOW I'LL START!

PASS THIS ON TO YOUR FRIENDS, KIDS, LOVED ONES

Somehow, I question the veracity of this'un, Don.

For one thing, an employee wouldn't last long enough...


--Mac

This is NOT limited to Wal-Mart, although they are the largest retailer so they have the most incidents

NOTE: I stuck the above phrase into the search engine and got all kinds of links to

URBAN MYTHS.

Sorry.

Just because a random email says "BEWARE" doesn't mean you need to be beware.

And if it says "Please pass this along", I NEVER pass it along. I HATE forwarded emails and electronic "chain letters".

Quote:

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PASS THIS ON TO YOUR FRIENDS, KIDS, LOVED ONES

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I personally wouldn't pass this along to anyone.

it happened to me personally. don't neuter the messenger, please. "a word to the wise is sufficient!" you can quote me on that.

I hate those as well

Quote:

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Just because a random email says "BEWARE" doesn't mean you need to be beware.

And if it says "Please pass this along", I NEVER pass it along. I HATE forwarded emails and electronic "chain letters".

Quote:

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PASS THIS ON TO YOUR FRIENDS, KIDS, LOVED ONES

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I personally wouldn't pass this along to anyone.

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Don, if it did happen to you, man, that sucks. But you've gotta know -- the e-mail is a known urban legend, the most common cause of which is simply hitting the wrong buttons (which I understand completely, as I do it all the time -- every store has their own screen layout, and some of the screens aren't particularly, y'know, readable). Maybe you should contact snopes.com with your info...? Better yet, the store in question?

my wife is also disabled so friends do our shopping. after a big grocery list (over $250) we noticed a $20 "cash back" entry on the register tape. we called the store manager (walmart, incidentally) and told him that we had not requested nor received cash back. since the cashier's id was on the tape, along with the transaction time, he promised to investigate. within an hour, he called back saying we had a credit of $20 at the store. mysteriously, that cashier was never seen again. presumably, ours was not her first compliant.

like any other alert or warning, if you choose to ignore it, don't kill the messenger, you're on your own, jack!

Don's story differs from the story in the OP in that the discrepancy was noted and corrected without any other bad thing happening.

In the original story, there was an issue with a $40 addon, then when that was argued and the ticket rewritten, there was a second issue of a $20 addon.

That made my investigator's eyebrow raise because an employee who was really attempting to run such a scam would not be likely to try it again, even for less money - on the same person. That's not human nature. They would most likely just square the deal and done, knowing that there will be another new customer to try to fleece right behind that one. And even then, they could only get away with such for a very short amount of time, as the majority of Walmart shoppers are there because they are thrifty, the kind of folks who watch their money and read their receipts. Even if the customers may not have caught the discrepancy while instore, you can be fairly sure that they would still find out about it at some point in time - and there would certainly be confrontation with management. Which would again result in the light shining on a certain employee...


--Mac

Credit card scam - that's redundant!

mac, apparently they'll target the longer tape elderly. ours was about $250. the other incident was $150. the walmart manager could have been reluctant to believe us (a counter-scam) but, fortunately, he knew us. i am sure that the cashier was suspect previously. my wife always closely scrutinizes the receipts due to disbelief in the total and cashier's incompetence. she has caught many scanning errors. they are supposed to scan each item, they don't. they'll take 1 of 20 alike items, such as tomato soup, and scan the same can (tin) approximately 20 passes. suddenly, the million dollar computer has been short-circuited by a fallible human memory. we've simply got to eliminate the "human element!" lol

certainly, if you are just picking up a couple of items they have a different strategy..they secretly rake your receipt off onto the floor on their side of the counter hoping that you won't notice or ask. management counters that with a sign "DON'T BAG THE RECEIPT" because that's where the scammers say they had put it. your "lost" receipt, of course, has a cash-back entry on it. by the time your statement comes you won't remember the transaction.

another "innocent" error is: the new mom behind you loads the conveyor belt with 100 jars of baby food and they jump the separator and you get charged for them. anybody for 6 jars of strained prunes? strained carrots?