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View Full Version : what kind of scam was this at the grocery?


pinkytoe
12-2-12, 7:39pm
DH and I were in the chekout line at the grocery earlier today while it was very busy. A young lady approached us and asked if she could buy our groceries with her food stamp card. She said she would give us $5.00 cash for doing so. It sounded good but I can't figure out what her intent was - how would she profit from buying our groceries? We declined of course but I am still wondering what the scam was. Any ideas?
artist
12-2-12, 7:42pm
She buys the groceries for you... You pay her for your groceries and she's got cash to spend on whatever she wants. All it cost her is $5 cash.
bunnys
12-2-12, 7:42pm
No clue. Maybe you only heard part 1 and it would have made sense once you agreed to participate. I'm sure it would have involved her agent overpaying you and you looking forward to a generous check arriving soon from a Nigerian bank.
Mrs-M
12-2-12, 7:53pm
This is something I draw a hardline on. I would have replied, "no thank you, I need my groceries, but there's a whole store-full where mine came from".
redfox
12-2-12, 8:32pm
She's trying to convert her food stamps to cash. It's a survival skill; people often do this to pay for thrir rent or utilities.
Square Peg
12-2-12, 11:44pm
Maybe she needed to pay rent or maybe she wanted to buy Christmas gifts?
Tiam
12-2-12, 11:50pm
She buys the groceries for you... You pay her for your groceries and she's got cash to spend on whatever she wants. All it cost her is $5 cash.


Typically called "Tramping stamps". But she didn't say that is what she wanted. Just a straight offer.
Gregg
12-3-12, 11:01am
She's trying to convert her food stamps to cash. It's a survival skill; people often do this to pay for thrir rent or utilities.

And a few unscrupulous characters might even try to buy cigarettes or liquor or substances that don't even make the tax rolls.
CathyA
12-3-12, 11:09am
Hard to know for sure. She definitely wants to buy something that she can't buy with food stams.......like drugs, alcohol, cigs. Then again, maybe it is for utilities/rent??
How much would her foodstamps have bought you?
redfox
12-3-12, 3:20pm
And a few unscrupulous characters might even try to buy cigarettes or liquor or substances that don't even make the tax rolls.

Yes, a few might. Addictions tend to rule. This is a crime of survivial, and is an endictment of a society that castigates to poor no matter what. Very sad, very preventable.