"Refund, Here is the Receipt"... 'Receipt Scammers' Hurting Small Business Owners

Misuse of Receipt Captures Uploaded on the Internet

Cases of fraudulent refund requests using photos of receipts posted by other customers on the internet have emerged, causing tension in the self-employed community.

Recently, a post titled "Sharing Receipt Scammers" was published on the online self-employed community 'Apeunikka Sajangida' (Because It Hurts, I'm a Boss).

[Photo by Pixabay]

The author, Mr. A, who runs a restaurant, revealed that he recently received a phone call starting with 070.

The caller introduced himself as "the husband of a woman who had dinner at the restaurant recently" and said, "My wife and child had diarrhea all night after dinner. They got better after taking medicine, but since both were sick, I want a refund for the meal."

Mr. A said, "I apologized and explained that compensation through insurance is the principle, but since they only wanted a refund for the meal cost, I decided to process the refund after verifying the receipt."

Afterwards, the author received an account number and a photo of the receipt via KakaoTalk messenger.

However, the receipt photo sent by the customer did not show the date, and the receipt information did not match the restaurant's POS data.

Mr. A requested confirmation of the card payment text message, but it was refused due to exposure of the card number. Later, when he asked again for contact information to proceed with insurance compensation, there was no further response.

Feeling suspicious, Mr. A searched the internet and finally confirmed that the receipt photo they sent as proof of visit was exactly the same as one posted on a blog.

Mr. A said, "I contacted the blogger, explained the situation, and the receipt photo was taken down," and urged other self-employed people to "always check if their store (reviews) appear on blogs."

He also added that he tried to report to the police to prevent damage to other self-employed people, but was told that a report would not be accepted without actual damage, so he could not file a report.

Meanwhile, on the 21st, a story about a customer who requested a pizza refund using a photo posted on a blog also sparked public outrage.

Mr. B, who runs a pizza shop, posted online asking for help, saying, "A customer requested a refund by sending a photo claiming there was hair in the pizza, but the photo could not have come from our pizza."

In response, a netizen commented, "Isn't it the same photo?" and shared a screenshot of a personal blog photo written years ago. It was confirmed that the post was actually written in 2019 and was unrelated to Mr. B's pizza shop.