Cash Scam
I work in a discount clothing store in the uk and today a woman came up to my register and asked to change £200 in £10 notes to £200 in £20 pound notes. She spoke limited english and also bought a 99p bag ( so i had reason to open my till) i counted the notes very carefully (both the tens and twenties) and then gave her the £200 in twenties at which point she said actually I wanted it in POUND COINS, confused I said we can’t do that and she gave the twenties back to get the tens back…I counted out the tens but she distracted me and asked about the 1pence change for the bag so I didn’t manage to count the twenties until she had left, at which point I realised I was short £100.
I called LP and let them know, but she was out of the store. I feel like such an idiot. They had warned us months ago about scams like these (another employee got caught out by one) and I even thought as I was counting ‘this is weird’ It was the request for £1 coins that threw me off, and her generally nice manner as well as her english, which i mentioned as being limited because trying to understand her was also distracting me. I went home and cried for like 2hours, no joke, I feel as if I am the dumbest person alive right now, and though my manager told me not to take it so hard, I am so anxious that they will fire me. Even typing it right now, I feel terrible. I just don’t know how I could have fallen for it.
Don't worry about it too much. I know alot of people who fell for the same scam and I myself managed to get myself scammed out of £200 just last month and I knew there was sometime dodgy going on but I just got sooo confused! My manager once lost £300! You learn from mistakes and its easily done. I'm sure they wont fire you :) x
