Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Perth takeaway owner creates CCTV system after hundreds try delivery refund scam

Freddy Findlay outside Shanghai Takeaway in Perth. Image: Freddy Findlay.
Freddy Findlay outside Shanghai Takeaway in Perth. Image: Freddy Findlay.

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.

The camera system has had a big impact since being installed at Shanghai Takeaway. Image: Freddy Findlay.

“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.”

Conversation