Beware of ‘accidental’ airtime scam

Here’s one to watch out for: Anet Schoeman wrote to Consumer Watch to relate an experience her mother had recently at her local Checkers in Protea Heights, Brackenfell.

Having paid for items at a check-out, she left the store, but later noticed an amount of R11 for “Vodacom” on her till slip.

She did not understand this, so went back to the check-out to query this.

“It turned out that it was for airtime that my mom never asked for and she was not given the slip with the redemption code,” Schoeman said.

At that point, the cashier apparently said to her: “Oh, here is the slip to load it on your phone. I kept it for you.”

“R11 is not a lot of money, but if the cashier does this a few times a day in small amounts to avoid detection, she could accumulate quite a bit of airtime for possible resale,” Schoeman said.

“What is alarming is the simplicity of the scam. And the cashier has a back door if caught out: ‘Oh, here is your slip. You must have forgotten it.’”

Schoeman said her mother had reported the incident to the store manager, who appeared to be alarmed.

I took up the issue with Shoprite’s head office, asking if they had had any other reports of this scam.

Responding, spokesman Sarita van Wyk said the incident had been investigated and the cashier in question had been suspended, pending a disciplinary hearing.

“We will take action against cashiers who try to take advantage of customers in any fashion, when it is brought to our attention,” she said.

“While we endeavour to appoint staff who can help us maintain high service levels, conduct sufficient training, and have a number of checks to ensure the honesty of especially cashiers in our business, it is not always possible to know when something like this is happening,” Van Wyk said.

“We do rely on customers to assist us in serving them well, by checking their till slips for any error or anomaly and bringing it to our attention so that we can take appropriate action.”

Van Wyk said she was aware of one other such case in Cape Town. In that case, the cashier was dismissed.

Yet another reason to check your till slips carefully.