Poll of the Day > If you working as a cashier and a customer hands you counterfeit money

(+) Yeah! (+)

are you supposed to give it back?
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You're supposed to tackle them and perform a citizens arrest.
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Call the police!!!

Jump over the conveyer belt and put them in the walls of jericho

I do work as a cashier for Wawa, it does happen occasionally. but wrong/bad/expired I.D. cards don't help one purchase tobacco products
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I think your supposed to keep it and call the cops. I remember one story where they ripped it up in front of the customer. but the thing was it actually was real money. and the customer stupidly just handed over ANOTHER bill. I think these were 100's. and the worker rips that one up to. so they just destroyed 200 bucks in front of the person. so then the customer I think called the cops and eventually they figured out the money had been real. and the worker got in deep shit.

The most they can do is call the police and hold on to it until they arrive. Then the cops determine if it's counterfeit or not. The business can't just keep it and tell the person trying to use it to get lost.

In most cases they simply return it and refuse the sale unless they can provide another method of payment.


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Zikten posted...

I think your supposed to keep it and call the cops. I remember one story where they ripped it up in front of the customer. but the thing was it actually was real money. and the customer stupidly just handed over ANOTHER bill. I think these were 100's. and the worker rips that one up to. so they just destroyed 200 bucks in front of the person. so then the customer I think called the cops and eventually they figured out the money had been real. and the worker got in deep shit.

We had counterfeit detection pens when I worked as a cashier. I can't imagine just assuming something was counterfeit without using that unless it was really obvious. Even then when you're braindead from working sometimes it can be hard to notice
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Zikten posted...

I think your supposed to keep it and call the cops. I remember one story where they ripped it up in front of the customer. but the thing was it actually was real money. and the customer stupidly just handed over ANOTHER bill. I think these were 100's. and the worker rips that one up to. so they just destroyed 200 bucks in front of the person. so then the customer I think called the cops and eventually they figured out the money had been real. and the worker got in deep shit.

That seems like the worst way to go about it. Why just rip it up? And what made them think it was counterfeit in the first place?

Bugmeat posted...

The most they can do is call the police and hold on to it until they arrive. Then the cops determine if it's counterfeit or not. The business can't just keep it and tell the person trying to use it to get lost.

In most cases they simply return it and refuse the sale unless they can provide another method of payment.

I figure asking for another bill or another form of payment would be fine. Or call the cops and stall the customer...
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What if the buyer was given the counterfeit at some point without knowing it was one? Them being asked to provide another form of payment is reasonable but is calling the cops on them a bit much?
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You keep it, and you have management detain the person and then they will call the police.
Once money is determined counterfeit, it should not be able to be circulated.
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pedro45 posted...

Once money is determined counterfeit, it should be able to be circulated.

eh?
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I edited it. I spoke wrong :p
It's stealing to use fake money.
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InfestedAdam posted...

What if the buyer was given the counterfeit at some point without knowing it was one? Them being asked to provide another form of payment is reasonable but is calling the cops on them a bit much?

I think it would be fine, then. They explain to the cops what happened. And then they can go to the place where they received the counterfeit money. And can check videos. And hopefully find a way to trace it back to its source...
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LinkPizza posted...

And then they can go to the place where they received the counterfeit money.

That part might be difficult since who knows how many stops they've made and/or how long they've had that bill tbh.

InfestedAdam posted...

What if the buyer was given the counterfeit at some point without knowing it was one? Them being asked to provide another form of payment is reasonable but is calling the cops on them a bit much?

You aren't calling the cops on the person so much as you are calling them to come take custody of the counterfeit bill (if it really is one). If the person hangs around they almost certainly didn't know they had a counterfeit bill and they won't be arrested for it. A guilty person, in most cases, will say "fuck this" and leave before the cops arrive.

But it's pretty irrelevant since most stores don't want to risk a scene and will simply decline the payment and give it back to the customer.


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InfestedAdam posted...

What if the buyer was given the counterfeit at some point without knowing it was one? Them being asked to provide another form of payment is reasonable but is calling the cops on them a bit much?

it doesn't mean they will get in trouble if it was handed to them at some point.

still need the cops to be involved though to track down the source
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ChaosAzeroth posted...

LinkPizza posted...

And then they can go to the place where they received the counterfeit money.

That part might be difficult since who knows how many stops they've made and/or how long they've had that bill tbh.

Thats the only problem. Though, normally, I think the counterfeit bills are usually $100 or $20 that people check with the marker... and normally, people may at least remember where you got those from. It could take some time, but going back to the store you got it from can help to track it. Maybe they can watch tapes to see if they got that $20 from another customer. And if so, maybe find them. And go again and again... if possible... Either way, itd be nice if they tried to...
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I am not sure if it was counterfeit, but I did give back $100 to someone, he was trying to use it to buy a $1 item.
I was like, I cant make change for that bucko, got anything smaller. He said he had something in his vehicle. Never did return. Was trying to pull a fast one, the manager agreed. If it was a fake, its a good way to get 90+ dollars out of it.
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I usually pay with my credit card, even for purchases less than $5, because I like to track my spending so those signs stating "We do not accept bills larger than $20" rarely crossed my mind. Reading through this thread it does make lotsa sense and put the store at less risk while not being an inconvenience to the customer that much.
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InfestedAdam posted...

I usually pay with my credit card, even for purchases less than $5, because I like to track my spending so those signs stating "We do not accept bills larger than $20" rarely crossed my mind. Reading through this thread it does make lotsa sense and put the store at less risk while not being an inconvenience to the customer that much.

Yeah. Most stores have a certain amount of money for each register. I know that's why we couldn't accept certain size bills at different places... Most of the time...
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LinkPizza posted...

Most stores have a certain amount of money for each register.

When I use to work as a cashier at a family gas station, at least on a few occasions near the start of a new shift a customer would come in and buy a few dollars worth of snacks with a $100 bill. I leave it to my aunt, uncle, or older cousin to check it but good grief was it annoying to lose that many smaller bills right at the start. Fortunately don't think it ever led to us running out of small bills for change as we either had extra on-site or my uncle would run to the bank to get change.
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InfestedAdam posted...

LinkPizza posted...

Most stores have a certain amount of money for each register.

When I use to work as a cashier at a family gas station, at least on a few occasions near the start of a new shift a customer would come in and buy a few dollars worth of snacks with a $100 bill. I leave it to my aunt, uncle, or older cousin to check it but good grief was it annoying to lose that many smaller bills right at the start. Fortunately don't think it ever led to us running out of small bills for change as we either had extra on-site or my uncle would run to the bank to get change.

At one of my jobs, we did send runners to a bank every so often if we were going to need smaller bills... But stuff like that would suck. That customer is lucky. Many places would have turned him away. At least until they had a few more customers. Or if they started with a bunch of $20s...
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