Tobacco & liquor store manager - six-gate intercept checklist for large orders from strangers - whole cases of premium liquor pass six gates before leaving the store, each gate with its own graceful stop, covering fake transfer slips, overpay-and-refund, and fake corporate-buyer plays

You are a store-manager coach for a tobacco & liquor
shop. Build a printable "large order from a stranger"
intercept checklist. Context: the shop sells exactly
what fraud crews want - high value, fast resale, big
tickets. The signature is an unfamiliar face, whole
cases of premium liquor, a large amount, needed
today. The checklist gets taped inside the register
and walked gate by gate when such an order arrives.

Threshold: any premium-liquor ticket above
[order line] where the customer is unknown or
unfamiliar. Regulars skip gate one; everyone walks
the rest.

The six gates (each: what to check / the danger
signal / the graceful stop - speakable as
written):

Gate 1 - The relationship
- Check: this person's actual history with the
  shop - a true regular? a known company buyer?
  or nobody recognizes the face
- Danger: "a friend recommended you" but can't
  say who; "I'm in all the time" but no staff
  member has seen them
- Stop: "One moment, let me confirm with the
  owner" - step away and verify; never challenge
  to their face

Gate 2 - The use case
- Check: real buyers can describe the occasion -
  what event, which date, delivered where, is an
  invoice needed; a fraudster just wants the
  goods
- Danger: vague purpose ("just for myself" while
  buying whole cases of premium); price
  insensitivity (real spenders always ask for a
  better number)
- Stop: "Can I get your invoice details?" - the
  invoice request is itself a filter; almost no
  fraud wants paperwork

Gate 3 - Payment confirmation (the hard gate)
- Check: has the money actually landed - bank
  credit entry or the payment platform's own
  arrival notice
- Danger: a transfer screenshot; a "transfer
  successful" page with nothing on your side;
  pressure like "there's the screenshot, start
  packing, it'll land in two hours"; a delayed-
  settlement channel
- Stop: "We go by cleared funds - usually just
  a few minutes. Have a seat, have some water."
  Goods stay unpacked, nobody leaves the
  counter. If it never lands: "Let's leave it
  today - the moment it clears we'll hold the
  stock for you"

Gate 4 - Overpay and refund (refused always,
zero exceptions)
- Check: any shape of "money passes through
  your hands" - overpayment with a refund
  request, fronting cash to a driver, a
  test-transfer you must send back
- Danger: transfer amount exceeds the invoice
  with a difference to refund; money directed
  to a "finance person" or "driver"
- Stop: "Ask them to reverse the excess at the
  source - we only take the invoice amount."
  Nothing extra received, nothing refunded,
  no side flows

Gate 5 - Delivery and invoicing
- Check: does the invoice header match the
  paying account; pickup or delivery, and to
  a real address
- Danger: payer, invoice recipient, and
  receiver are three different names; delivery
  to a freight depot or logistics point for
  "self-pickup"
- Stop: "Invoice and payment accounts have to
  match, or our bookkeeping can't process it" -
  hide behind procedure, don't accuse

Gate 6 - Authority and evidence
- Check: above [approval line] the manager must
  be present; handover happens fully on camera;
  photos of goods, buyer, and plate if
  delivering
- Danger: the customer steering the transaction
  away from the register, asking to close the
  deal outside
- Stop: "Store policy - large items change hands
  here at the counter, thank you for bearing
  with us" - the policy targets no one

Footer (printed at the bottom of the sheet):
- Any gate that fails parks the order - funds
  not cleared, goods don't leave. No exceptions,
  no favors
- Staff unsure escalates, always. Escalating
  wrongly is never punished; releasing wrongly
  is

Constraints:
- Stops stay colloquial - no officialese like
  "per regulations" (gates 3 and 5's
  "bookkeeping can't process" is a white lie,
  not officialese)
- No "stay alert" or "increase vigilance" -
  every gate resolves to a physical action
- No stereotyped fraudster profiles - screen
  behavior, not appearances; coveralls and
  suits commit the same crimes

Why it is written this way

The gates are ordered by how a scam script unfolds, not by importance. A real play runs as a pipeline: establish identity credibility (gate 1), numb your vigilance with a big easy order (gate 2), manufacture the appearance of payment (gate 3) or flip it into a payout (gate 4), then use a messy handover to turn goods-for-money into goods-for-nothing (gate 5). Checkpoints laid along the script mean the fraudster must re-clear a gate with every step forward, and the clerk always has the next gate to fall back to. That's why every gate carries a graceful stop rather than just a danger list - the checklist isn't for identifying who's fake, it's for having a place to stand when anything feels wrong.

Gate 4's absolute refusal is the hardest rule on the sheet because it guards the only scam pattern that puts the store immediately underwater. Every other gate fails safe - you simply never get paid. The overpay-and-refund family is the reverse: the incoming transfer is reversible or stolen, the refunded difference is real money leaving for good. This gate cannot have a "if they seem credible" branch, because the entire craft of the script is seeming credible.

The footer line - escalating wrongly is never punished, releasing wrongly is - is what keeps the checklist alive in daily use. Fraud checklists die of friction: staff avoid the hassle, fear offending customers, fear being blamed for a false alarm, and every gate quietly passes. Making accountability one-directional buys you the willingness to stop an order; gate 6's "store policy" framing does the same job in the moment - policy can absorb the awkwardness a clerk can't, so the human never has to be the one saying no.

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