Fraud Watch: Count Your Money Episode 2
This just in. It’s a true story about one of my clients who’s Ottawa home I recently sold. People in the habit of receiving cash directly for the bank teller take note; Count your money!
Here’s the scenario. Senior gentleman regularly visits the bank just before 10 am to receive $400 cash from the teller. He likes to exchange a word with the young teller. He likes the attention. She smiles and counts out the cash, compiles it, and with a tap she passes the withdrawal to the client. She smiles, makes eye contact. She wishes him a good afternoon. She knows he is in the habit of placing the money directly into his wallet without counting. He smiles and leaves the bank.
This scene repeats itself week after week and the senior is happy to wait for his favourite teller to serve him, in fact he knows her work schedule so that he can make his withdrawals on her shift. He loves to see her friendly smile. It makes his day!
Yesterday, the senior receives a call from the bank manager asking him to come into the branch office for a special meeting. The manager sits across from his big desk and tells the senior gentleman that a teller has been flagged. She has been shorting changing customers. The manager calculates $1,400 is owing!
Incredulous, the senior refuses to accept that he has been defrauded of any money. He’s concerned his favourite teller will be dismissed or worse yet, face a jail term. Only after the manager describes in detail each occurrence with dates and amounts withheld does the gentleman begin to accept the deceit. It’s all on video says the manager. This incident has been kept within house by the manager so that it doesn’t go public and draw attention to the bank name, at least so far. Corporate image to protect, know what I mean?
The bank manager offers the senior a cheque for $1,400 to cover his shortfall. Makes you think differently about the automatic bank teller. I thought they were more likely to miss a twenty here and there. In fact the automatic tellers have an accuracy of 99.9 % and they deliver 24 – 7. But, the smile is missing!
So why then do I count the bills I get from the automatic teller and not those I receiver from the human teller? Watch the video and watch your money!