Scammers caught in the act
I was getting lunch at Croissant Express in West Perth with Mark and Fitzy earlier today when I thought I saw a scam underway. It works like this:
You buy something of low value (around $2-$5) with a big note, preferably a $100 bill (y’all). You get your change as a 50, two 20s and some smaller monies. You hide the 50 and remind the cashier that you paid with a hunge. They check over your change and see that it is indeed missing the 50 and give you another one. Cha-ching.
When I saw it I thought that there was a good chance she was trying the scam, but wasn’t 100% sure. I sat down, talked to the boys and explained what I thought I’d seen.
Then on the way back we wandered into the newsagency and she was at the counter. I jumped next to her, bought a $3 Scratch ‘n’ Win (the same as her) and watched her play the game again. Bingo! I wasn’t seeing things. I went outside to tell the boys that I was onto her, and she walked into the next shop - a Japanese sushi bar. She tried the same thing again and I intercepted. I told the cashier what was going on but she either didn’t understand me or thought I was the crazy one. The thief’s “spotter” out the front was whistling and getting the scammer’s attention, so they both walked out the front and took off around the corner. I did what I could verbally to hold them up but there wasn’t much we could do other than explain the scam to the newsagent and tell them what had happened.
It was a shit feeling knowing that they’d gotten away with a stack of cash, but I can take some pride in knowing that we stopped their pillage across West Perth prematurely.
Update: 2:06PM
Fate dished me out a dollar for my troubles (the Scratch ‘n’ Win paid out).
Ahhh money shufflers… yeah it’s an old scam and unfortunately most people working a register are too dumb to realise.
We got done at one of the stores week before last for $100.
Good work though, I’m sure most people wouldn’t have given two shits :P
You should have used your phone to record her. Then you could have posted it here, and then start a one man campaign to clean up the city.
What a shame; this sounded like a perfect opportunity for you to put your Brazilian Jiu Jitsu into action!
Good work yesterday. Let’s hope the bandits got hit by a bus.
Jack: Yeah I thought of that afterwards. We were wearing TFG shirts though, so it’s probably a good thing that we didn’t get into fisticuffs with them, else we could experience retaliation in the form of break-ins. Photo would have been asking for trouble, which I guess I was :)
Lanzon: It’s funny that my “fight or flight” response lately has been leaning towards “fight” :) I definitely think it comes down to having confidence in my BJJ. The comp was great for this.