A Perth takeaway owner has set up a CCTV monitoring system to stop delivery customers fraudulently claiming refunds.
Freddy Findlay has taken action after hundreds of customers used a scam to coin money from Shanghai Takeaway on Hospital Street.
Miscreants have been contacting the store with bogus claims that they have received fewer items than they ordered.
They have demanded partial or full refunds and Freddy, without evidence to the contrary, has been forced to pay up.
This has recently been happening with more regularity, with dozens of claims being made each week.
Freddy has therefore installed installed CCTV cameras in his shop to monitor exactly what is being packed.
“It has been a big, big problem,” he said.
Camera can see order slip
His dedicated recording device shows exactly what is placed in each order.
“I have a CCTV camera connected to a hard drive,” Freddy said.
“We can grab still images from it or can have a short video clip of orders being packed.
“The camera is clear and can even see what the order slip is.”
‘They usually hang up’
The camera system has had a big impact since being installed two months ago.
“If there are, say, seven items on the slip we then know that seven items have been packed into the bag,” Freddy said.
“And we have a seal on the bag confirming orders are complete.
“The customer may then call and say his chicken balls or fried rice are missing.
“So I check the camera and, lo and behold, the chicken balls have been put in.
“So I say we have a camera system monitoring that.
“I then ask if they would like to see a video of it. That is when they usually hang up.
“It’s quite surprising how adamant they are on the phone, and then when you say you have a dedicated video in the packing area they go very quiet.”
Hundreds of banning orders
Freddy says the scam had grown in popularity due to posters on a Facebook page sharing it.
“Some orders are up to £60 and they were getting full refunds for it,” he said.
“Some weeks we could lose a couple of hundreds pounds.
“Never does a week go by when we haven’t got someone claiming items were missing.”
Freddy has four A4 pages containing hundreds of blacklisted addresses in the Perth area.
“I have a list in the shop of addresses known to do the scam,” he said.
“I just ban them and don’t take orders for that address.”
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