The Scam Artist

Several years ago when I was a General Manager of a well known Chain restaurant, I had the misfortune of having to deal with a huge scam artist. A woman came in one day to say she had been in a week earlier to get take out for her boyfriend and herself and upon completion of the meal they were both very ill and had to be hospitalized. Of course I was very empathetic, in the beginning, and researched the information she had given me. They had apparently spent an excess of $70 and she was demanding her money back. $70, in this restaurant, would feed 4-6 people. I inquired as to the items she had purchased to see if we could determine which items had made them ill. She had to look at a menu. Ultimately, with more research, I realized that in fact this was a scam, due to the items she claims to have ordered and the fact that one of the items she had ordered 2 of, was not a popular item and we had only sold one on the day in question. She claimed that she was on vacation, had a hospital bill to pay (but couldn't remember the name of the hospital) and would contact out corporate office. This drama went on for several weeks. The woman would come in every Sunday during the lunch rush, demanding her money. Of course the corporate office wanted to handle it, but they could never reach her by phone, and she always appeared on Sunday, when the corporate office was closed. I so wanted to get rid of this woman and finally had a thought (shocking it took so long, I know). I decided to do a Reverse Phone Lookup on the out of state number she had given me. It was not in her name, and the nice people on the other end were tired of our calls (corporate had been trying to reach her at this number as well). They had no idea who this "scammer" was and asked us to please stop calling. About a month into it, and all my research later, Corporate finally gave me the okay to deal with her in any manner I chose. She came in that Sunday, raising a stink (once again) for all to hear. She told me she was going to call the health department, the local news channel, the news paper and her attorney. I politely explained that she would want to call her attorney first, because if she wasn't gone in 30 seconds, I was calling the police. I never saw her again.

I truly believe that the information retrieved with the reverse Phone Lookup was what clinched the deal for Corporate. The address did not match the info she had given me and that pretty much sealed her fate. Boy did it feel good to finally get rid of her.