I recently bought some gas from a full-service station in Toronto, Canada. The total cost to fill up my empty tank was $80. I handed the attendant my card like normal but when he returned from inside with the receipt he explained he had made a mistake and charged me the wrong price, so he had to charge me a second time, with the total amount adding up correctly to $80.
I happened to notice in my mirror as he was approaching my car he appeared to be stuffing at least $20 into his pocket, now this could have been change for some other car, I’m not sure, but the whole thing seemed a little strange to me.
Are there any well-known scams that work like this? I don’t think he was defrauding me, but perhaps he was somehow defrauding the gas station itself. Or perhaps I’m just paranoid, but that’s why I’m asking reddit to be the voice of reason, does any of this seem fishy to you?
Did you notice that there are two different pump numbers and per gallon gas prices on the two receipts? What’s up with that? I think he might have given his friend on the other pump $50 worth of gas for $20 cash, which he pocketed for himself, then gave the receipt to you. Don’t know how he scammed their cash register/computer, though. Are you in fact sure you got $80 worth in gallons?
Looks to me like he screwed up and in his haste to fix it made a second mistake that won’t be discovered until he counts his till at the end of his shift and is 50 bucks short.
As a scam it’s not sustainable. If he was just going to create fake cash transactions out of thin air he wouldn’t need your help.
Yeah, he chose the wrong pump the first time on the register. That one was for $50. Realizing his mistake, he chose your pump, said that $50 was tendered as cash, and charged your CC the remaining $30. The problem will come when the person on the original pump goes in to pay for their fuel and the register shows it as having been paid.
I doubt it’s a scam, but it’ll screw up their end of shift accounting for sure.
I would not count out a scam. It might not be sustainable, but I also doubt that gas stations are hiring math and computer wizards very often (though, with this economy, I could be wrong about that )
If I were out to do this and was not particularly bright, I’d fill a co-conspirator’s car with gas, issue a receipt, then hand this receipt to the next customer who comes in and orders more gas than I pumped into my buddy’s car, hoping they would not notice the smaller amount. I’d save your (larger amount) receipt to hand to the next customer that came in and received a still larger amount of gas - more than what is on the receipt that they were given. At the end of the shift, there may be a way to game the station’s pumps and/or cash register system to hide what is going on…at least for a while.
Just guessing, though. What does smell to me is the guy pocketing $20 when he did. Odd timing, that; as well as the different pump numbers and gas types on the receipts.
I don’t think it’s a scam. Pump 6 paid $50 cash in advance, the attendant accidentally applied that to your gas on pump 5. You paid $80 in two credit card swipes, and you both paid the right amount.
I hate these math/logic puzzles! My gut still tells me its a scam. May have to do with 25 years in a career dealing with professional criminals, I will admit: one begins to suspect darn near every “not Kosher” situation as likely having some nefarious underpinning.
As someone who worked at a gas station in college and now has 30 plus years experience as an accountant/auditor I do not see a scam. I agree with ZenBeam.
His till will be correct at the end of his shift too.
I’m still not getting this: someone on pump 6 buys $50 with a credit card at 19:21. Then there is a $50 cash and $30 credit card transaction on pump 5 a minute later at 19:22.
The OP says that he bought $80 with a credit card, but then the attendant says, I made a mistake, didn’t charge you enough…and then uses a different pump with a different gas price to correct his first mistake? With $50 cash and $30 credit card?
Still doesn’t add up to me.
But even if we grant the possibility that the OP was on pump 6 and was accidentally charged only $50 on his credit card there, and there was a different customer on pump 5 paying for $50 of gas with cash, if the attendant then charged the OP with the $30 credit against pump 5, won’t the eventual accounting reflect too much gas being pumped out of pump 6 and too little from pump 5 to match the payment records? Or do gas stations not track actual gas delivery vs payments?
The $50 cash tendered on the second receipt is just how he gave the OP credit for the amount they actually paid by credit card in the first transaction. He charged their card for the amount due at the wrong pump, and that charge was for $30 less than the OP owed. He gave them a receipt for that charge. He then charged their card on the correct ticket which was for $80, credited them $50 as “cash tendered” even though they had paid it by card. The register probably only allows a split payment of cash and a credit card or two different credit cards but has no way to denote a split payment on the same card. In the end the OP only paid a total of $80 and left with $80 worth of gas. The mystery car that still owed $50.00 presumably paid by cash or a new credit card charge.
The OP got $80 worth of gas from pump 5 and never paid any cash, and we don’t know how the car that was at pump 6 paid their $50. If the other car paid in cash, every detail of the entire set of transactions would pan out just fine at accounting time. There would be $50 cash and $80 in credit card charges in the till and $130 worth of fuel sold. If the other car paid by credit card via a new charge, the attendant would have to explain what happened and why he was short $50 cash but $50 over in credit charges but there would still be $130 in the till and $130 worth of gas sold. If the other driver happened to be a gas thief and sped off without paying that would have left the attendant with a lot more explaining to do.
Not only were the two receipts from different pumps, but they were also at different prices per liter.
Regardless whether it is a scam or accident, it is going to cause some very funny numbers later on. And if the employee doesn’t have a good memory of the mistake, you’ll be the only one with the missing clues.
I’ll go with the theory that he accidentally charged your card at first to the wrong pump. Then he fixed it by charging the right pump but pretending the first payment was “cash” applied to the second payment.
If the charge was legit, the $50 cash paid for the other pump cancels out the “fake $50” on the second receipt and all balances.
Seems clean enough.
The only question is whether the reconcilliation of gas vs. money at the end of the shift is correct, and whether he could refund a charge to cash. Usually, a refund needs supervisor approval or at least a supervisor should look at the “cash going out” transactions. In this case, why bother playng games with credit cards - just do refunds.
Also, I would be surprised if the “total cssh and credit” vs. “total gas” was not compared after every shift.
If neither of these checks are applied to the final register tally, then the place deserves to pay a stupidity tax.
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