Twelve-Year Old Scammer
During the great depression my grandfather was injured at his job and couldn’t work. For a year, to keep the family going, my then 12 year old father and his older brother dropped out of school and ran “change raising” scams on shop keepers in Cleveland Ohio for money, pretty much as the family’s only income.
My grandparents knew about it, didn’t approve, but didn’t stop them either, it’s just what kept food on the table in tough times. After a year, grandpa went back to work, and my dad and uncle went back to school and to just being regular kids again.
“Change Raising” is a generic term for several variations for scamming a cashier while they are giving you your change from whatever purchase you just made.
They are all various cover stories for getting the cashier to combine several change-giving transactions at the same time, and the cashier ultimately ends up giving you too much change for your purchase. The scammer ends up with both the item and some extra cash. When it’s done well the cashier won’t even know it happened.
My father taught me how to do several variations of it, including one that is still probably not well known. He showed it to me with me as the “cashier” and, even knowing it was going to happen, he still had to slow down and explain to me where the mistake occurs. With the right person doing it, it’s slick. Story credit: Reddit / picksandchooses