Why paper receipts are money at Drive-Thru – Cancer crab

Check out this handmade sign located on the front door of a shutter Jimmy Johns sandwich chain store in Missouri last week. See if you can see from the store owner’s message what happened.

If you guessed that someone in Jimmy John’s store might have been the victim of a Business Email Compromise (BEC) or “CEO fraud” scheme – in which the scammers pretend to be business leaders to steal money – you would be in good company.

In fact, it was my first assumption when a reader in Missouri shared this photo after being rejected from his favorite store. But a conversation with the store owner Steve Saladin brought home the truth that some of the best solutions to fight fraud are even more low-tech than BEC scams.

Visit any casual, informal eatery, and there̵[ads1]7;s a good chance you’ll see a sign somewhere from management telling customers that their next meal is free if they do not receive a receipt with the food. While it may not be obvious, such guidelines are intended to deter employee theft.

You can probably guess now that this particular Jimmy Johns franchise – in Sunset Hills, Mo. – was among those who chose not to motivate customers to insist on receiving receipts. Thanks to that oversight, Saladin was forced to close the store last week and fire the husband-and-wife leaders for allegedly embezzling nearly $ 100,000 in cash payments from customers.

Saladin said he began to suspect something was wrong after agreeing to take over the couple’s Monday and Tuesday shifts so they could have two consecutive days off together. He said he noticed that cash receipts at the end of the nights on Mondays and Tuesdays were “significantly larger” than when he did not staff the cash register, and that this was consistent over several weeks.

Then he got friends to go through the restaurant’s drive-thru to see if they received receipts for cash payments.

“One of [the managers] would take an order on drive-thru, and when they decided that the customer should pay with cash, the other would make the customer’s change for it, but then delete the order before the system could complete it and print a receipt, “Saladin said.

Saladin said his lawyers and local law enforcement are now involved, and he estimates that former employees stole close to $ 100,000 in cash receipts. It was on top of the $ 115,000 in salary he paid in total each year to both employees. Saladin must also find a way to pay the franchisor a fee for each of the stolen transactions.

Now Saladin sees the wisdom in adding the receipt sign, and says that all his stores will soon carry a sign offering $ 10 in cash to all customers who report that they have not received a receipt with the food.

Many business owners are reluctant to involve the authorities when they discover that a current or former employee has stolen from them. All too often, organizations that are exposed to employee theft shy away from reporting it because they are concerned that any media coverage of the crime will do more harm than good.

But there are discreet ways to secure embezzlement. A few years ago I attended a presentation by an investigator at the criminal department US The tax authorities (IRS) which suggested that all embezzlement victims seeking a discreet law enforcement response should only contact the tax authorities.

The agent said that the tax authorities are obliged to investigate all notifications it receives from employers about unreported income, but that embezzlement victims often fail to notify the agency. It’s a shame, he said, because under U.S. federal law, anyone who intentionally attempts to evade or defeat taxes can be charged with a felony, with penalties that include up to $ 100,000 in fines, up to five years in prison and the costs. by reprimand. .