Hey everyone! So we got a call that we quickly realized was a scam, no worries there. The caller wanted to know if we were having issues with our POS, then tried to set up a phone order. He said it would decline right away and give him an error message that he could use to figure out why the POS was declining cards that shouldn’t be. We knew right off it was a scam, but I’m still not sure what they were trying to do with all that.
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These POS scams often end with the person at the register being told to dump all the cash into a bitcoin ATM down the street.
Another guess: the card is stolen. The phone order looks like it’s going through, and then they insist you refund it in another way instead of just voiding the sale.
@Jennifer
Oh wow, we had something like that happen at my other job too. They wanted us to accept a FedEx package that my manager was expecting, but there wasn’t enough money for it, so they wanted us to go into the safe to cover the rest of the cost. So sketchy 
@BillSmith
Oh man, I saw a post here a few months ago where the employee actually destroyed the work safe at the scammer’s request. Wild to read about.
Sounds like some social engineering. It’s a classic move to get victims to send money (either personal or company funds). Sometimes it’s about getting information for phishing.
The scanning part might just be to get you to let your guard down. They want to see if you’ll follow the instructions further.
Here’s a link to a similar story where the scammer convinced the person to move $5k of the store’s money, but thankfully they realized it was a scam before the money was sent.
@Roger
There have been a lot of these, but that one is a pretty good example of how it goes down.
They start by saying something like ‘I need to check the POS, run this card. The system will do exactly what I’m saying it will’ and then it slowly turns into ‘Load a gift card with a huge amount, select the cash payment option, and read me off the full card number and PIN so I can verify it. Don’t worry, your store will get reimbursed.’
Good catch realizing it was a scam right away!
Luchivya said:
Good catch realizing it was a scam right away!
Honestly, I’m super cautious with anyone who calls claiming to be from IT or anything like that, especially after 5 pm. Scammers love calling after hours when they think there might not be a manager around. They’re just hoping to catch someone lower down in the chain.
Is it possible they were just testing a stolen card and trying to do it in a way that’s anonymous?