When did you catch a customer who was totally trying to scam you?

A customer said he'd never received a book, so he checked UPS and it was shipped to a different address.

So we called UPS saying, what the frick, and they said the customer had called them to change the shipping address,

and that they had a digital copy of his signature.

He denied it was his signature and denied he'd ever called to change

the shipping address, and that he'd never even heard of that address. He claimed that we changed

the address and we were trying to screw him over. I did some investigating and found out that the new

address it shipped to was a business under his name. So I called him up during his business hours,

basically saying, aha, busted. He then called

the police on me saying we were harassing him, so my boss had to talk to the cops, and the cops

found out he did in fact receive the books. Ah, good times. I used to work for a furniture company

in the mid-90s. One day we got a memo that there was a former

coworker who was using stolen cards to do in-store pickups or deliveries to fake addresses,

like an apartment or something, but they'd pick up the furniture in the apartment lobby and claim

the elevator was broken or something. The FBI was getting involved because it was in the

amounts of thousands of dollars across state lines. A few days later, I got a call, a big order. The kind of order that would blow over quota and give me a bonus. Can you deliver this to New Jersey? Oh, sure. I took down the credit card info, then I asked for a callback number so I could relate to the shipping info. They hesitated. I said MasterCcard required it. Um, let me give you a visa then. Uh-huh. Okay, I went forward with that info and then said, Oh, I forgot. Visa needs that as well. Um, I'll call you back, they said. So I called to the home office and told them I think it was those guys. The MO checked out, and they said if they said if they call back, try to get an Amex card, and then don't ask for a callback number. Just set up a delivery. And hours later, they called back. Got my assistant, and I told her to just take the order. When it was completed, she had an Amex card order for some ungodly amount. I called the Home Office and they arranged a sting with the

FBI. Later, the drivers told me what had happened. They had to make a rendezvous point where they loaded

a bunch of armed agents into the truck. Then, once the woman signed the bill of landing, the FBI goon

squad jumped from the truck and arrested her and four accomplices without much resistance. Later, Mastercard,

Visa and Amex gave me reward checks for recovering stolen cards. Sweet. Oh, nice deal for you. Maybe

the lesson for the potential scammer here is that you should be prepared to walk away if you

even get a whiff of the patsy being onto you for something. I do wonder when

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