A woman has issued a PSA to shoppers after an Aldi cashier used a “cashback scam” to attempt to steal $100 from her.
In a TikTok with almost 3 million views as of Saturday, content creator Dominique Nash (@welcome2thenashhouse) explains how this “new scam” almost cost her upwards of five times the amount of her actual total—and how she witnessed the cashier in question get over on others.
“Y’all when you go to the grocery store, please make sure that you check your receipt,” Dominique begins. “You will not believe what just happened to me.”
Dominique details how she went shopping at a local Aldi in St. Louis, Missouri. She purchased three items which came to $19.96.
“I used my Cashapp card [to pay] because it gives me immediate alerts, and I did tap to pay,” she says.
But then something strange happened: when prompted on the screen to indicate if she wanted cash back, Dominique says the cashier “hit a button on his side and [the screen] went away.”
Dominique’s payment was then declined. “The payment didn’t go through because he submitted for me to get $100 in cash back which I didn’t have,” she alleges.
Confused by the payment decline, and having immediately “received a fraud alert” from her CashApp account, she tells the cashier to set her things to the side as she investigates.
“I see exactly this,” Dominique says, sharing a screenshot of her CashApp that shows an attempted $119.64 withdrawal. “It says not enough for a $119.64 withdrawal.”
Dominique says she then confronted the “nervous” cashier.
“So I went back up to him and I said, ‘So you tried to charge me $119.64 cents?’ He says, ‘No, uh-uh.’ Oh, so you tried to get cashback of $100,” she deduces.
Dominique explains how she witnessed the cashier scam others: “There were two people ahead of me, and it was a black lady, and when she left he said, ‘I guess she doesn’t want her cash back’ and put the money to the side.”
“This is not on Aldi,” she continues, “This is on this worker here, this white guy named Corey who is stealing money from people using the cashback system.”
As the video ends, Dominique reveals that she reported the cashier and sends one final warning: “Please be sure that you’re paying attention to what is actually being debited from your account.”
@welcome2thenashhouse ♬ original sound – Dominique Nash
“I always check my receipt cause why yo drawer open?” one user wrote in the comments.
“I am a Store Manager with Aldi for 8 years, we do not have the option to select cash back or the amount, only you as a customer, so can you make it a little more clear what happened?” another commenter pressed.
“Happened to me at a Dollar Tree for $60 cash back. The cash back option disappeared when I didn’t touch the screen. I made her give me my cash. Imagine the people that didn’t catch it. smh,” came another reply.
“I HOPE you notified his manager and Aldi Corp. immediately. Thanks for the notice,” one user wrote, to which Dominique replied, “He is the store manager so I reached out to corporate.”
“This type of stuff is why I don’t mind using self checkout,” noted a fifth person.
In an age of consistent inflation—2024 projected to see an inflation rate of 3%—customers have been encouraged by TikTokers to more than ever check their receipts and ensure what they intended to spend is what they were ultimately charged.
The Daily Dot has reported on content creator Brianna Nicole, who realized that store items cost more than their displayed price after checking her receipt post-Whole Foods grocery run.
“Always check your receipts, always make sure that you’re paying attention, taking a mental image of the items that you’re putting in your cart and how much everything costs,” Brianna advised in her video.
The Daily Dot has reached out to Dominique via email and Aldi via email for more information.
