Let me tell You a lil about what goes through peoples head when their conduct their scams. They think about the risk of getting caught and if anybody is looking at them. Probably the slightest eye contact with other people will leave them wondering the rest of the day if that person knows what theyre doing.

The people who think like that are often the people who get caught, Ive caught a good handfull my self.

The people who have a real chance of getting away with it, being successfull and never getting caught are the people who understand that You work with what Youve been given. What I mean is that You (the scammer) use the areas of the business that You control to Your advantage. The more You control the easier Your scheme becomes.

First You need to identify a weakness in the processes. It can be anything from stock control, surveilance and changing shifts to more people on the same key or cash register, empty bottles, cash register open button, having Your tips right next the cash register, pourers left in a small glass of water, friends of the bar/staff/owner who drink at a discount or for free.

Yes it truly can be anything that You can identify as a weakness and a place where either alcohol or cash can go missing unrecorded. The more processes You control the easier it becomes to scam and cover it up at the same time. A lot of scams can be completely surveilance proof, practically impossible to detect and wont show up anywhere as stock or cash gone missing.

Ive seen a few specacular ones in my time and I must say that just dealing with cash is scamming on a very low level. Think about it, what is the ultimate scam? It is of course You selling Your own stuff at the restaurant or bar without it interfering with the stock count or the cash flow.

If You want to look for the really clever scammers, look at what they bring IN to work and not what they take out.

If some scammer brings in a bottle of vodka every night and goes through that bottle by the end of his/her shift that person could have sold 8-15 drinks and pocketed all the cash. A lot of bars let staff drink all the coke, sprite, water, juice or whatever other mixers they have on their fountin for free. Often without it being accounted for or using an old weekly average to determine acceptable consumption. Even if it is accounted for theres a good chance it would show up as being an insignificant change. The bartender might even ring in a couple of large soft drinks just to balance it out.