Joanita Wibowo
Legal

Scammer cheats pharmacy cashier out of $50 with "magic trick"

A pharmacy in South Australia has urged businesses to beware of a cash con that the owner likened to a “magic show”.

9News reported that Wayville’s Chemist King in Adelaide has fallen victim to a scam involving bills and coins swapping.

A CCTV footage shows a customer tricking the cashier into giving him significantly more change than he was due.

The man arrived at the cash register under the guise of purchasing a $3 hand wash. After paying with a $100 bill, he then pulled out other notes and coins to have them exchanged.

During the exchange he slid a note into his wallet, took control over the money counting and ended up with at least $50 more than when he walked in.

“He had it all planned out, he knew exactly what he was doing,” said Ashleigh Scott, one of the pharmacy’s staff members. “Buy a cheap item, give a big note and then bring out a pocketful of coins when you could have paid with that.”

The chemist’s owner Vu Vo said the con, which he described as “very quick” and “almost like a magic show”, was a regular occurrence that his young, inexperienced employees had to face.

“Coming out into the workforce and experiencing these sorts of things just makes them feel like more cheated and less trust in other people.”

Following the incidents, Chemist King has changed their policy to no longer allow customers to swap notes and coins in any of their outlets, according to 9News.

“We want to create awareness for other businesses to retrain their staff and make them aware as well of these type of things that are occurring,” said Vo.

Have you ever seen this scam in action? Let us know in the comments.

Tags:
Scam, business, Australia, Legal, crime