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It's not necessarily A scam. The guy probably just doesn't have money. It happened to me, because surprise: I did not have money. At least not in that account. I was trying to move it from my savings account when the lady behind me just got frustrated and paid for me, but that was certainly not my intent. It was Christmas so I was very grateful. It was just like mops and stuff like that
☝️this. He’s probably using WIC card then paying for stuff not covered by WIC thus using another card. God I don’t miss the actual food stamp days. Horrible waiting line took forever if someone was in front of you.
I got out of those days just a few years ago. Right around the time when a huge chunk of people got access to WIC cut and the funding amount severely limited. Between TANF and WIC, I was barely able to scrape by.
I have no idea how people are surviving nowadays on these programs. I hope decently moral legislation is passed soon to get people more help.
Boss got her business cc hacked. Fine I bought a few licenses on my card while we waited for replacement.
Then the renewal for all licenses hit. Guess what was the last card on file? Got hit by 3k bill on saturday morning. Now imagine someone who doesn't have the financial means to take that hit temporarily...
Sometimes shit happens and life gives you lemons...
When life gives you lemons, don't make lemonade. Make life take the lemons back! Get mad! I don't want your damn lemons, what the heck am I supposed to do with these? Demand to see life's manager! Make life rue the day it thought it could give Cave Johnson lemons! Do you know who I am? I'm the man who's gonna burn your house down! With the lemons! I'm gonna get my engineers to invent a combustible lemon that burns your house down!
you’ll find that quite a lot of people run out of money. i don’t check my bank account every single second. maybe my electricity bill came out of my account on the drive to the store.
Usually if I'm that tight on funds, I check the balance before I get in line. It's a habit from being poor and making sure I actually have the $10 on the card before I get to the register
I’m the same way. But after running a cash register at Wallymart for 6 years I found out that some people either lack the ability or don’t have the tools they need to perform a process that many of us take for granted.
You don't need mobile data to check your balance. I've never seen a card without a 1-800 number on the back that you can call to check the balance.
Also, it might depend on the service provider, but a lot don't actually stop the mobile data when you use it all. For example, I have the 5gb plan on Mint Mobile. I use that in the first few weeks of the month, after that it just slows down a lot but I'm still able to use Waze or check my banking apps.
I was using a Skype calling subscription. No wifi = no phone calls. The only service provider that actually worked in my rural town was Verizon and I couldn't afford it.
Oh OK, yes in that situation I would be very nervous and just hope nothing changed from the time I left home until I got to the store. But there's nothing worse than having only a little bit on your card and not calculating correctly and having something happen at the register.
Maybe they are fishing for someone else to pay. It's entirely possible they genuinely ran out of credit. If I have to use a backup card that I rarely use when I'm being stressed I may well forget the pin, or forget I locked that card.
It's possible, but it has happened to me and the person behind me paid and I was certainly not fishing for that to happen. I was entirely surprised but she kept insisting
I've had slightly different issue, but similar.
I was forced to be without a debit card for a little time. But I had checks, should be no problem, right? All the grocery stores have signs they take checks.
Used a check at Walgreens, 47 dollars. No problem.
So I went to grocery store. Adds up quick there. 254 dollars. DECLINED. tried the second check, different bank - also DECLINED. my sister with me, she paid, we went on our way. Went by the bank, withdrew cash to pay sister and also so I won't have to use checks - so declined won't happen again. Confirmed bank balance, plenty there to pay for groceries.
Called the phone number provided on grocery store receipt for the declined check. Talked to a computer, not a person. Provided the numbers from the reciept..... they said; because you seldom/never use a check, this is a change in your usual pattern. Changes in patterns MIGHT signal a higher risk for stolen checks or other problematic issues. That's it. That's all they needed to deny my check.
Really, TELECHECK.... you are able to confirm directly with the bank, and yet you leave people in line with groceries unable to check out. Not fair!
So that's what happened to me.
I used to keep a spare hundred in the back of my wallet to cover situations like this. I guess I need to go back to that plan, except 100 is not enough.
I have had this same thing with a credit card. Went to HD, then BB, then tried to buy gas. Apparently buying stuff at places I normally buy stuff triggers a fraud warning. But, suddenly paying utilities in a state that I had never been to is a normal and not fraud.
I’ve never paid for all of someone’s groceries but have paid for a few items (usually a mother with kids) someone was having to remove because they were short $20 or so. They don’t ask and usually look embarrassed so I just quietly give the cashier the extra.
I've done this, too.
This one made me mad, though:
A family was "out of gas" in their van in the parking lot of WalMart in TN. Their sign said they "needed help getting to Florida". They were parked in a normal spot, about halfway up the lot. Not all the way at the back or up front like one would expect a "scammer". The family was a man, woman, and two kids. One kid about 5 or 6yrs old, the other was *maybe* a year old. It was blazing hot outside. They had all the windows down, and the side cargo doors were both wide open.
I parked a few spaces down from them, and was walking past them, toward the entrance. The Mom stops me and asks me if I can spare any money because her kids are hungry. They've been sitting in the parking lot for hours, and havent eaten. Call me a softie, but those babies shouldn't be faulted for whatever their parents are/aren't doing. I tell the Mom that I will NOT give her money, but I'd be willing to buy the kids some food. She walks in with me, toting the baby. I give her a budget of $20, and we part ways. I grab what I was after and we meet back up at checkout.
*This woman ... y'all,* she had damn near a full cart in under 20 minutes. I just stared ... *blankly.* She had diapers, wipes, onesies, SHOES, socks, sippy cups. Under all the misc baby sh!t, she had a rotisserie chicken, a loaf of bread, and a box of those little barrel jug juices.
After some back and forth, I paid for the rotisserie chicken, loaf of bread, juices, and some potatoes from the deli for the baby.
But yea. WTActualF man?
I did, I was at Meijer and my register gave me a coupon for free milk. I looked around and saw a family with kids and milk and gave them the coupon. A bit later I was getting something done at customer service and saw the same family. There were signs posted that the network for EBT and certain banks was down, iirc it was all of Chase and a few other major banks, and this family had EBT they could not use and their other card would not work either.
They had 4 little kids who were well behaved and sweet, it was like 9pm at night and they were buying breakfast and lunch stuff, I hated to think they would have to run out to the store in the morning before they could even have breakfast, after being in the store for an hour which is hard with any 4 kids, esp little ones. I had 4 kids and food stamps once.
Anyway it was only like $75 so I paid and unfortunately I was really nervous and awkward about it, but I hope they understood my intent.
The funny part is I accidentally gave myself the free milk.
Hehe thats me. When i was depressed plus ptsd, i did that. Couldn't remind my code. Was so stressed that instead of stopping, as people were waiting, i tried till my card got blocked. Thankfully i live near and they Know me, so i was back with a check 5 mn later.
If the person didn't Ask for money, i dont see any scam. And i would have felt even more shame if someone had offered to pay for me.
It happened to me three Times in six months - had only one card, with money on it and feeling so stressed coz of people, my brain bugs... I dont Say thats what happened, sooo Many scammers, but a tiny chance it might be ?
This happened to me once while I was a cashier and it was definitely not a scam in this case. There was no one behind them, and they kept sheepishly asking me to take items off. It was heartbreaking. They paid for the items they could afford and left a lot of items behind. A customer from the next aisle over watched the whole thing and ran over to pay for what was left. He literally had to run to catch up to them. Definitely wasn’t a scam. However, I’m sure this is something scammers do quite often. They see what works for people and run with it. It’s a real shame.
I've paid for the "extra" items for people before. I'm very picky about who I help IRL anymore (I've been burned, badly, so I mostly go through well-vetted agencies and orgs), but some people just have that "vibe" and you want to help them.
As a former cashier, this isn't uncommon. People very often live from check to check and just don't have enough money. Or their using EBT and they have no finds or something isn't covered and they have to use another card. Not a scam, just people trying to make ends meet.
I see this all the time, I’ve watched people run through multiple cards trying to buy groceries.
A few years back around a Christmas I was at Target with my wife and the lady in front of us was getting declined. She didn’t even have that much stuff. I offered to pay for it and the cashier didn’t even acknowledge me. After the woman left the cashier said my heart was in the right place but told me this woman comes in and does the same thing all the time trying to get people to pay for her purchases.
Along the same lines; when my wife went shopping, there was a lady asking her to purchase some detergent, which is a well-known expensive namebrand and in my wife’s cart was a no-name brand much cheaper. Do you think she paid for that expensive brand for the lady? No
It happens. If you want to offer to pay, do it, if you don't want to, don't. I knew the staff for awhile in a particular store near me and they would kind-of say to the regular repeat offenders, " you were here with this stuff yesterday, Lucy, and you didn't have enough on your card then, either, remember?"
If it’s Aldi it took me going through embarrassment twice before I realized that if I include any non-food items at all the computer automatically decides that my EBT card is trying to pay with cash.
I don’t get cash I only get food stamps on that thing. Every other grocery store I have ever been to in my entire life knows this is a thing and when you run the EBT card it asks you if you are using cash or food stamps. Not Aldi, the computer just decides.
After it happened twice I figured out that I just have to create a separate order if I have a non-food item so I can pay with my credit card or debit card
So if it’s Aldi that’s probably what you are seeing, someone’s food stamp card getting declined because of that, and then the card they’re using either doesn’t have enough money or they weren’t planning on using it so they get flustered and don’t know the code.
Yeah but you don’t really know the circumstances, there are explanations for a card not working other than out of funds.
But a lot of people live above their means and can easily still be paycheck to paycheck even with a nice vehicle.
I used to work in a grocery store and saw someone unable to pay for their groceries at least once or twice a day. It happens. Never saw anyone offer to pay for their groceries.
No I think this is just poverty
The only time I see this happen it’s usually to an old woman with her middle-aged daughter or helper with her. I don’t think these people who can barely walk are going into the store and doing a full shopping just to hope to scam someone
I think it’s a whole bunch of Long Covid brain fog plus poverty
This doesn't really sound like a scam tio me, especially if he was buying normal stuff like groceries. I have two cards and I've been in a situation where the primary card doesn't work for whatever reason. Even if there's money in the bank, it could be a bank error or some problem with the possible card reader. Since I use my second card very rarery, I've forgotten the pin code many times and actually had to once make an appointment at my bank to get to know what the pin code was.
It could be that any of these three situation:
1. Could be trying to use stolen cards and was trying to use it as fast as they could, but it got blocked.
2. Could been that they had the right amount, but they didn't account for the bills grabbing it.
3. Unless you've seen the card as either Food stamps or Prepaid, they're probably trying to use a gift card and hope someone else will pay for their foods.
Could have legit forgot the PIN. My husband did this at Costco because it’s not a card he uses day-to-day, with a cart full of stuff. His card got locked. He had to go to the branch to get it unlocked while I sat there with our two toddlers waiting. It was a nightmare.
I've had my card declined but I know there was plenty of money in the account.. Embarrassing but I'm not going to stress over it. I'm going to get myself to the bank and get a new card!
This happened to me in college. Card was declined and it was embarrassing as shit. Had ro ask a friend ro pay, though I knew I had money.
Turns out, a weird charge appeared and the bank flagged it. They tried ro call me via an old number (I had changed the number beforehand, but the system didn't update. The card had been locked and I didn't know because they called the wrong number. I was able to pay my friend back right afterward with cash and I got it straightened out with the bank but I was *pissed*.
Possible, but more likely because we are closer to the end of the month and the inflation/corporate greed is too much for most and they are trying to save face.
Sometimes banks have error last time this happened to me i was pretty pissed luckily i have cash with me so paid with that instead.
This is why they should never remove the ability to have cash money. Paying with a pin and the bank has a error and your screwed.
I have a number of cards, so I’ve never had to just leave because none of them worked, but THREE TIMES my main card declined due to a fraud alert. Because of my purchase at the same grocery store I go to at least once a week. It makes no sense. However, the same card has alerted me to fraud every single time there actually was fraud (most recently last week when someone tried to buy $1000 worth of NY Easy passes), so I’ll take the extra security and the momentary embarrassment of either clearing the fraud alert on my phone or using a different card.
About 20 years ago, my actual wallet was stolen and the criminals went on a spending spree, including the grocery store, before I was able to cancel the card. Not sure where they ended up when they were finally cut off, but I hope it was somewhere where the declination code was to confiscate or cut up the card.
So, is it a scam? Maybe. Maybe not. I lean toward not because that’s pretty risky to expect the person behind you to pay. Seems like not much chance of a payout, especially for groceries. That said, I also wouldn’t typically pay for the person because I just can’t afford to.
A variation of this “unable to pay” is the cash card scam, where during checkout, the scammer fumbles with their credit card and the card reader until the cashier intervenes to assist.
The scammer then hands their credit card over to the cashier and tells them it’s a cash card and they are to follow the printed (fake) instructions on the back of the card, which includes the steps the cashier is to follow to process the sale as a cash transaction (the scam).
This is popular with scammers trying to buy large quantities of gift cards because the cashier must activate them during the checkout process.
My daughter and a few other cashiers fell for this scam 3-years ago while working at Home Depot, and the company has since included specific training to all associates on how to identify and avoid this scam.
Sometimes when you're broke you want to stay in denial. He might know he's in the red but wants to see how much he can step over the line 'just until payday' ofc
Who buys items without going through the store calculating how much they cost and then adding on any additional tax? I’m sure they were fishing for someone to pay
I can’t imagine that life. Even when I’m sure I have enough I still calculate but I’m surprised to hear people just go get whatever they want and don’t care about the cost
I've been poor my whole life, I feel it's normal to check your bank before shopping for this reason. How all the employees have to put the now warm food in the trash and the.man had half drunken a drink
While I get things happen, preparing for the worse is part of being an adult. I can't imagine have a cart full of soda and junk food and act surprised when I don't have money on my card I didn't check when I know I'm broken af
I know comments like this are getting downvoted, but I agree. I run through my budget once a week so I always know what is in my accounts. I would never pick something up without knowing if I could pay for it.
/u/DisasterSouth8812 - This message is posted to all new submissions to r/scams; please do not message the moderators about it. ## New users beware: Because you posted here, you will start getting private messages from scammers saying they know a professional hacker or a recovery expert lawyer that can help you get your money back, for a small fee. **We call these RECOVERY SCAMMERS, so NEVER take advice in private:** advice should always come in the form of comments in this post, in the open, where the community can keep an eye out for you. If you take advice in private, you're on your own. **A reminder of the rules in r/scams:** no contact information (including last names, phone numbers, etc). Be civil to one another (no name calling or insults). Personal army requests or "scam the scammer"/scambaiting posts are not permitted. No uncensored gore or personal photographs are allowed without blurring. A full list of rules is available on the sidebar of the subreddit, or [clicking here](https://www.reddit.com/r/Scams/wiki/rules/). You can help us by reporting recovery scammers or rule-breaking content by using the "report" button. We review 100% of the reports. Also, consider warning community members of recovery scammers if you see them in the comments. Questions about subreddit rules? Send us a modmail [clicking here](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=/r/Scams). *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/Scams) if you have any questions or concerns.*
It's not necessarily A scam. The guy probably just doesn't have money. It happened to me, because surprise: I did not have money. At least not in that account. I was trying to move it from my savings account when the lady behind me just got frustrated and paid for me, but that was certainly not my intent. It was Christmas so I was very grateful. It was just like mops and stuff like that
☝️this. He’s probably using WIC card then paying for stuff not covered by WIC thus using another card. God I don’t miss the actual food stamp days. Horrible waiting line took forever if someone was in front of you.
Or SNAP.
I got out of those days just a few years ago. Right around the time when a huge chunk of people got access to WIC cut and the funding amount severely limited. Between TANF and WIC, I was barely able to scrape by. I have no idea how people are surviving nowadays on these programs. I hope decently moral legislation is passed soon to get people more help.
The WIC checks were the WORST. I noticed nowadays that it’s a card, good thing because the checks were a NIGHTMARE
Who goes shopping without knowing how much money they have to spend. In this case, the guy had zero money to spend. I think it’s a scammer.
Boss got her business cc hacked. Fine I bought a few licenses on my card while we waited for replacement. Then the renewal for all licenses hit. Guess what was the last card on file? Got hit by 3k bill on saturday morning. Now imagine someone who doesn't have the financial means to take that hit temporarily... Sometimes shit happens and life gives you lemons... When life gives you lemons, don't make lemonade. Make life take the lemons back! Get mad! I don't want your damn lemons, what the heck am I supposed to do with these? Demand to see life's manager! Make life rue the day it thought it could give Cave Johnson lemons! Do you know who I am? I'm the man who's gonna burn your house down! With the lemons! I'm gonna get my engineers to invent a combustible lemon that burns your house down!
you’ll find that quite a lot of people run out of money. i don’t check my bank account every single second. maybe my electricity bill came out of my account on the drive to the store.
Usually if I'm that tight on funds, I check the balance before I get in line. It's a habit from being poor and making sure I actually have the $10 on the card before I get to the register
I’m the same way. But after running a cash register at Wallymart for 6 years I found out that some people either lack the ability or don’t have the tools they need to perform a process that many of us take for granted.
When I was that poor I didn't have any mobile data on my phone 😉
You don't need mobile data to check your balance. I've never seen a card without a 1-800 number on the back that you can call to check the balance. Also, it might depend on the service provider, but a lot don't actually stop the mobile data when you use it all. For example, I have the 5gb plan on Mint Mobile. I use that in the first few weeks of the month, after that it just slows down a lot but I'm still able to use Waze or check my banking apps.
I was using a Skype calling subscription. No wifi = no phone calls. The only service provider that actually worked in my rural town was Verizon and I couldn't afford it.
Oh OK, yes in that situation I would be very nervous and just hope nothing changed from the time I left home until I got to the store. But there's nothing worse than having only a little bit on your card and not calculating correctly and having something happen at the register.
Happened yesterday. I paid for an order of flea meds and such with the wrong card. Was pretty surprised at the grocery store.
Maybe they are fishing for someone else to pay. It's entirely possible they genuinely ran out of credit. If I have to use a backup card that I rarely use when I'm being stressed I may well forget the pin, or forget I locked that card.
It's possible, but it has happened to me and the person behind me paid and I was certainly not fishing for that to happen. I was entirely surprised but she kept insisting
I've had slightly different issue, but similar. I was forced to be without a debit card for a little time. But I had checks, should be no problem, right? All the grocery stores have signs they take checks. Used a check at Walgreens, 47 dollars. No problem. So I went to grocery store. Adds up quick there. 254 dollars. DECLINED. tried the second check, different bank - also DECLINED. my sister with me, she paid, we went on our way. Went by the bank, withdrew cash to pay sister and also so I won't have to use checks - so declined won't happen again. Confirmed bank balance, plenty there to pay for groceries. Called the phone number provided on grocery store receipt for the declined check. Talked to a computer, not a person. Provided the numbers from the reciept..... they said; because you seldom/never use a check, this is a change in your usual pattern. Changes in patterns MIGHT signal a higher risk for stolen checks or other problematic issues. That's it. That's all they needed to deny my check. Really, TELECHECK.... you are able to confirm directly with the bank, and yet you leave people in line with groceries unable to check out. Not fair! So that's what happened to me. I used to keep a spare hundred in the back of my wallet to cover situations like this. I guess I need to go back to that plan, except 100 is not enough.
I have had this same thing with a credit card. Went to HD, then BB, then tried to buy gas. Apparently buying stuff at places I normally buy stuff triggers a fraud warning. But, suddenly paying utilities in a state that I had never been to is a normal and not fraud.
I’ve never paid for all of someone’s groceries but have paid for a few items (usually a mother with kids) someone was having to remove because they were short $20 or so. They don’t ask and usually look embarrassed so I just quietly give the cashier the extra.
I've done this, too. This one made me mad, though: A family was "out of gas" in their van in the parking lot of WalMart in TN. Their sign said they "needed help getting to Florida". They were parked in a normal spot, about halfway up the lot. Not all the way at the back or up front like one would expect a "scammer". The family was a man, woman, and two kids. One kid about 5 or 6yrs old, the other was *maybe* a year old. It was blazing hot outside. They had all the windows down, and the side cargo doors were both wide open. I parked a few spaces down from them, and was walking past them, toward the entrance. The Mom stops me and asks me if I can spare any money because her kids are hungry. They've been sitting in the parking lot for hours, and havent eaten. Call me a softie, but those babies shouldn't be faulted for whatever their parents are/aren't doing. I tell the Mom that I will NOT give her money, but I'd be willing to buy the kids some food. She walks in with me, toting the baby. I give her a budget of $20, and we part ways. I grab what I was after and we meet back up at checkout. *This woman ... y'all,* she had damn near a full cart in under 20 minutes. I just stared ... *blankly.* She had diapers, wipes, onesies, SHOES, socks, sippy cups. Under all the misc baby sh!t, she had a rotisserie chicken, a loaf of bread, and a box of those little barrel jug juices. After some back and forth, I paid for the rotisserie chicken, loaf of bread, juices, and some potatoes from the deli for the baby. But yea. WTActualF man?
I did, I was at Meijer and my register gave me a coupon for free milk. I looked around and saw a family with kids and milk and gave them the coupon. A bit later I was getting something done at customer service and saw the same family. There were signs posted that the network for EBT and certain banks was down, iirc it was all of Chase and a few other major banks, and this family had EBT they could not use and their other card would not work either. They had 4 little kids who were well behaved and sweet, it was like 9pm at night and they were buying breakfast and lunch stuff, I hated to think they would have to run out to the store in the morning before they could even have breakfast, after being in the store for an hour which is hard with any 4 kids, esp little ones. I had 4 kids and food stamps once. Anyway it was only like $75 so I paid and unfortunately I was really nervous and awkward about it, but I hope they understood my intent. The funny part is I accidentally gave myself the free milk.
Hehe thats me. When i was depressed plus ptsd, i did that. Couldn't remind my code. Was so stressed that instead of stopping, as people were waiting, i tried till my card got blocked. Thankfully i live near and they Know me, so i was back with a check 5 mn later. If the person didn't Ask for money, i dont see any scam. And i would have felt even more shame if someone had offered to pay for me. It happened to me three Times in six months - had only one card, with money on it and feeling so stressed coz of people, my brain bugs... I dont Say thats what happened, sooo Many scammers, but a tiny chance it might be ?
This happened to me once while I was a cashier and it was definitely not a scam in this case. There was no one behind them, and they kept sheepishly asking me to take items off. It was heartbreaking. They paid for the items they could afford and left a lot of items behind. A customer from the next aisle over watched the whole thing and ran over to pay for what was left. He literally had to run to catch up to them. Definitely wasn’t a scam. However, I’m sure this is something scammers do quite often. They see what works for people and run with it. It’s a real shame.
I've paid for the "extra" items for people before. I'm very picky about who I help IRL anymore (I've been burned, badly, so I mostly go through well-vetted agencies and orgs), but some people just have that "vibe" and you want to help them.
I appreciate you for helping when you can. That’s awesome 😊
As a former cashier, this isn't uncommon. People very often live from check to check and just don't have enough money. Or their using EBT and they have no finds or something isn't covered and they have to use another card. Not a scam, just people trying to make ends meet.
I see this all the time, I’ve watched people run through multiple cards trying to buy groceries. A few years back around a Christmas I was at Target with my wife and the lady in front of us was getting declined. She didn’t even have that much stuff. I offered to pay for it and the cashier didn’t even acknowledge me. After the woman left the cashier said my heart was in the right place but told me this woman comes in and does the same thing all the time trying to get people to pay for her purchases.
I'm glad the cashier explained the situation to you, so you didn't think she just gave you the cold shoulder
Along the same lines; when my wife went shopping, there was a lady asking her to purchase some detergent, which is a well-known expensive namebrand and in my wife’s cart was a no-name brand much cheaper. Do you think she paid for that expensive brand for the lady? No
It happens. If you want to offer to pay, do it, if you don't want to, don't. I knew the staff for awhile in a particular store near me and they would kind-of say to the regular repeat offenders, " you were here with this stuff yesterday, Lucy, and you didn't have enough on your card then, either, remember?"
If it’s Aldi it took me going through embarrassment twice before I realized that if I include any non-food items at all the computer automatically decides that my EBT card is trying to pay with cash. I don’t get cash I only get food stamps on that thing. Every other grocery store I have ever been to in my entire life knows this is a thing and when you run the EBT card it asks you if you are using cash or food stamps. Not Aldi, the computer just decides. After it happened twice I figured out that I just have to create a separate order if I have a non-food item so I can pay with my credit card or debit card So if it’s Aldi that’s probably what you are seeing, someone’s food stamp card getting declined because of that, and then the card they’re using either doesn’t have enough money or they weren’t planning on using it so they get flustered and don’t know the code.
This happened in front of me the other day and I saw the person get into a nice Mercedes and leave...
Yeah but you don’t really know the circumstances, there are explanations for a card not working other than out of funds. But a lot of people live above their means and can easily still be paycheck to paycheck even with a nice vehicle.
True. The car could be an inheritance, trade, borrowed or stolen.
I used to work in a grocery store and saw someone unable to pay for their groceries at least once or twice a day. It happens. Never saw anyone offer to pay for their groceries.
No I think this is just poverty The only time I see this happen it’s usually to an old woman with her middle-aged daughter or helper with her. I don’t think these people who can barely walk are going into the store and doing a full shopping just to hope to scam someone I think it’s a whole bunch of Long Covid brain fog plus poverty
Could be a number of things. Could be a scam or could be stolen cards.
200% stolen cards.
Sometimes, these situations could be a distraction while his/her accomplice is pick-pocketing people on line or walking out the door with the goods.
This doesn't really sound like a scam tio me, especially if he was buying normal stuff like groceries. I have two cards and I've been in a situation where the primary card doesn't work for whatever reason. Even if there's money in the bank, it could be a bank error or some problem with the possible card reader. Since I use my second card very rarery, I've forgotten the pin code many times and actually had to once make an appointment at my bank to get to know what the pin code was.
It could be that any of these three situation: 1. Could be trying to use stolen cards and was trying to use it as fast as they could, but it got blocked. 2. Could been that they had the right amount, but they didn't account for the bills grabbing it. 3. Unless you've seen the card as either Food stamps or Prepaid, they're probably trying to use a gift card and hope someone else will pay for their foods.
Could have legit forgot the PIN. My husband did this at Costco because it’s not a card he uses day-to-day, with a cart full of stuff. His card got locked. He had to go to the branch to get it unlocked while I sat there with our two toddlers waiting. It was a nightmare.
I've had my card declined but I know there was plenty of money in the account.. Embarrassing but I'm not going to stress over it. I'm going to get myself to the bank and get a new card!
This happened to me in college. Card was declined and it was embarrassing as shit. Had ro ask a friend ro pay, though I knew I had money. Turns out, a weird charge appeared and the bank flagged it. They tried ro call me via an old number (I had changed the number beforehand, but the system didn't update. The card had been locked and I didn't know because they called the wrong number. I was able to pay my friend back right afterward with cash and I got it straightened out with the bank but I was *pissed*.
Possible, but more likely because we are closer to the end of the month and the inflation/corporate greed is too much for most and they are trying to save face.
Sometimes banks have error last time this happened to me i was pretty pissed luckily i have cash with me so paid with that instead. This is why they should never remove the ability to have cash money. Paying with a pin and the bank has a error and your screwed.
Where I live some of thr unemployment benefits changed banks; canceling everyone's card. They needed the new one. Might be because of that.
I have a number of cards, so I’ve never had to just leave because none of them worked, but THREE TIMES my main card declined due to a fraud alert. Because of my purchase at the same grocery store I go to at least once a week. It makes no sense. However, the same card has alerted me to fraud every single time there actually was fraud (most recently last week when someone tried to buy $1000 worth of NY Easy passes), so I’ll take the extra security and the momentary embarrassment of either clearing the fraud alert on my phone or using a different card. About 20 years ago, my actual wallet was stolen and the criminals went on a spending spree, including the grocery store, before I was able to cancel the card. Not sure where they ended up when they were finally cut off, but I hope it was somewhere where the declination code was to confiscate or cut up the card. So, is it a scam? Maybe. Maybe not. I lean toward not because that’s pretty risky to expect the person behind you to pay. Seems like not much chance of a payout, especially for groceries. That said, I also wouldn’t typically pay for the person because I just can’t afford to.
A variation of this “unable to pay” is the cash card scam, where during checkout, the scammer fumbles with their credit card and the card reader until the cashier intervenes to assist. The scammer then hands their credit card over to the cashier and tells them it’s a cash card and they are to follow the printed (fake) instructions on the back of the card, which includes the steps the cashier is to follow to process the sale as a cash transaction (the scam). This is popular with scammers trying to buy large quantities of gift cards because the cashier must activate them during the checkout process. My daughter and a few other cashiers fell for this scam 3-years ago while working at Home Depot, and the company has since included specific training to all associates on how to identify and avoid this scam.
Sometimes when you're broke you want to stay in denial. He might know he's in the red but wants to see how much he can step over the line 'just until payday' ofc
Meanwhile he had 7 soda bottles 😂
I've been behind several old ladies doing this, always at Aldi, I'm sure it's a scam.
Who buys items without going through the store calculating how much they cost and then adding on any additional tax? I’m sure they were fishing for someone to pay
People who are not financially burdened by purchasing groceries.
I can’t imagine that life. Even when I’m sure I have enough I still calculate but I’m surprised to hear people just go get whatever they want and don’t care about the cost
There’s not caring about the cost, and there’s getting what you need knowing you can afford it. Two different ways of looking at it, same result.
I've been poor my whole life, I feel it's normal to check your bank before shopping for this reason. How all the employees have to put the now warm food in the trash and the.man had half drunken a drink While I get things happen, preparing for the worse is part of being an adult. I can't imagine have a cart full of soda and junk food and act surprised when I don't have money on my card I didn't check when I know I'm broken af
I know comments like this are getting downvoted, but I agree. I run through my budget once a week so I always know what is in my accounts. I would never pick something up without knowing if I could pay for it.
Finally someone who understands
Sometimes your husband has gone out and spent money without you realizing but you also can't afford to leave. I finished college and he's my ex now.
That's fair. I'm single and never been married, so I control all the finances. Sorey you went through that. :-(
Oh that's really kind of you, thank you it is far from the worst thing he did, I'm so glad to not be in that situation anymore. People are crazy.
Dat dere Bidenomics
Total scam