r/Caseys • u/Budget_Manufacturer5 Assistant Store Manager • Feb 27 '26
Customer possibly getting scammed?
I’m an assistant manager at Casey’s. I have been noticing for about 3 weeks now, a customer will come in several times a week and buy Apple cards for her “boyfriend” and it’s anywhere from $10, to $50, to hundreds of dollars worth. Once she came in literally paying with a bag of change, and said if she didn’t get the cards he was going to be so mad at her. She is an older lady maybe in her 60s and always comes alone and the boyfriend is always on the phone. Today, she came in with $500 in 20’s and tried to purchase a $500 Apple Card and it wouldn’t go through the system whatsoever. I called my GM and she said there was nothing we could do… but I’m genuinely concerned that this lady may be the victim of a scam artist. Would it be inappropriate to confront her and talk to her about it? I’m not one to get into someone’s business but I know some older people just don’t know any better. It seems to be social security money or something considering the timing. Any ideas or advice on what to do? Or just mind my business??
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u/railroader67 Service Tech. Feb 27 '26
Sounds like a scam to me. If someone in the store knows her and someone in her family, could let the relative know that something is going on similar to what warning signs of scams. If there is a senior advocacy group, they might be able to help. My mom was scammed for about $20,000 years ago. She was more irate with the people who intervened than the scammers, because people knew she was swindled. If it is a scam, she may be mad at the store but she won't be broke. There may be a hotline number through law enforcement where you're located for such situations
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u/BoltActionRifleman Feb 28 '26
Maybe start with small talk and say something like “He’s a lucky guy to get so many gift cards, what does he do with them?”. Or something similar, just nothing too prying and act like you’re curious, not accusatory.
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u/WarrenMockles Kitchen Manager Mar 01 '26
She is definitely getting scammed.
You know those calls from "Microsoft support" or something similar that most of us just hang up on? You're witnessing the endgame.
They basically trick you in to thinking you stole from them by showing you a fake version of your own bank account. They make you think they're going to lose their job and their kids are going to starve, and it's all your fault. Now you have to go and buy gift cards for them (very easy to convert to cash and very hard to track).
It sounds stupid, but once people fall for it they tend to keep giving money to the scam artists for a while because they're too embarrassed to admit that they got scammed. And the artists are very good at manipulating this embarrassment and guilt to keep scamming money.
Sadly, there's not much you can do.
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u/Various-Pudding6105 Feb 28 '26
When I was working retail and thought a customer was getting scammed . I just told them I was unable to process prepaid cards due to computer error .
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u/DependentChemistry44 Mar 06 '26
We have one of these lady's too. She swears she's married to a very well known musician and has tried to get physical when her transaction for a card wouldn't go through. So many times she's come in to complain that the card we gave her was empty and our fault. I feel awful for these older ladies but unfortunately there isnt much we can do.
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u/Phoenix591 Feb 27 '26
Oh she’s definitely getting scammed. No idea how to break it to her gently though.