I've cashed so many coinstar receipts for customers that I just realized some of them can have the balls to just make a fake one. Which kinda has me interested in knowing how to spot a fake receipt.
Well they will most likely just get one printed for a lower amount and alter the numbers. Just look at the amounts and made sure the math is correct and fonts looks correct.
Occasionally, some tweaker will try to alter one freehand with a ballpoint pen (one time in blue ink). Sometimes they will try to use whiteout first. That's always good for laughs, and especially when a particularly dumb employee takes it.
We've had two separate groups attempt large scale Coinstar fraud.
The first group "washed" 1 cent slips and reprinted them. They were very lazy, so they had old dates, they reprinted the same slip over and over, the numbers didn't add up, the fonts were wrong, their print heads went out of alignment (most noticeable on bar codes), the printing was smeared and occasionally crooked, and they generally just looked off. Most employees were too dumb to catch any of that, but there were two easy tells. The first was that they applied a suspicious and obvious waxy coat over the slip to try to keep the ink from smearing. The second was that scratching the slip with a fingernail would no longer result in a black streak. Management started printing daily stats from the Coinstar so we could keep an eye on the number of penny slips.
The second group would take an otherwise legitimate slip, and then use a straightedge and a blade to scratch a 1 in front of the amount on the black section, a straightedge and a closely matching pen to draw a 1 in the other sections, and then color in or scratch off decimal points accordingly.
Obviously, the coin numbers didn't add up (two dollars in pennies and nickels don't make twelve dollars), and some of the jobs were REALLY sloppy. Their number 1's were also just straight lines sans serif, which were easy to spot if you weren't retarded, or even if you had to have one shown to you. One huge tell was that the amount of the slip is also repeated in the UPC under the barcode. I think they tried to alter those a few times, but it was too hard or obvious so they usually skipped it. If you scan the barcode, sometimes it will come up "Item not found" and repeat the upc with the amount in it. Thing is, it's a nonstandard barcode that doesn't scan reliably in the first place, and because it would be very easy to damage that barcode unobtrusively.
I always hated it when I got an altered slip. Mostly because so many of them were really bad. Makes me feel like I could do better. It's not hard to erase thermal paper, and you don't need to erase the whole thing. There's all kinds of tools to identify fonts. You don't need to use a ballpoint pen. It's not hard to align your print heads (although inkjet might not be the best choice). I was going to print out a million dollar Coinstar for my manager, but then she transferred.
I haven't seen an altered Coinstar in a long time. They should start coming in now that the holiday season is starting.
Honestly, it's kind of amazing that there isn't a more secure way to cash them.
Yeah, it is kinda interesting that there isn't a more secure way.
I also think our coinstar machine uses catalina coupon paper instead of thermal receipt paper. And we have tons of catalina paper rolls all over the front end that anyone can just grab.
But ya, thanks for the tips, I'll be paying attention to the individual coin amounts to see if they add up to the big total number and also to see if the total is in the barcode and if the barcode is readable by the scanner (should say item not found if successful) and that the fonts aren't smeared.
Conistar paper is different then Catalina. Coinstar paper has a edge that tares away for a security feature, also Coinstar paper has a heat sensitive area on the back for added security. The Coinstar process is very 1990's, the process definitely needs to be updated. With the ability to received online gift card vouchers for your purchases, they could come up with a way to print Kroger Gift Card Account number or Coinstar Gift Card #.
Ah, you're right. I think I remember seeing like a single wavy line going down across coinstar paper on the right side, and it's very thick. Looking at some catalina coupons that I have here, I see that there's two wavy lines that go on the left and they're thin compared to the coinstar one.
That's partially why Coinstar receipts by policy by me are required to be cashed same day so he balances verify or something. Service desk wont cash it if it's not same day, no exceptions. We also have a camera near ours so security / LP can pull tape and help verify balance reports if someone did do something so stupid, so your on camera too. It's well thought out. Same with our lotto machines, if a custy loses money or something in there and doesn't get it back, sorry. Have to wait for the bookie to come in as they are the only ones with the cash cage codes to unlock it for you. No exceptions, not even our Front End Lead has them.
-- Edited by UC151 on Friday 27th of October 2017 12:10:13 PM
My store had a scam ring. They'd do a coin star for a few cents, leave come back with the altered coin star. If you feel it has been altered in any way, yes you are 100% correct.
