New minor Gas Station Scam

This is a basic scam, and is really a silly thing to worry about, but if you let your guard down you might lose a few bucks.

It was tried on me at the Shell in Heredia and the gas station near Hypermas in Heredia (can’t remember the name).

I drive a Chevy Suburban, so I guess I scream GRINGO when I drive in to a gas station and I always pay in cash, so even more attention probably is drawn to me.

The first time this happened, I pulled up and asked for 10,000 colones. The guy starts to fill up and when it gets somewhere in the 8’s he stops and walks over to me for payment as if he was done. If I hadn’t looked back at the pump, I would be overpaying by 2,000 colones. The reason I knew it was a real scam and not just a misunderstanding was that he filled up to some random number like 8240, these guys never do that, who wants to make all that change? This is especially true at Shell where they have the computerized machines and just type in the number. Clearly, this is not the end of the world, but after two attempts, I now only go to my guys at the Shell in Barva, since they know me and wouldn’t pull this.

I speak Spanish, so it’s not a language barrier thing. Just a new silly scam, nothing major, so check the pump to make sure you’re paying for what you get.