Bradley And Associates News Blog Updates, Will Leaving a Cash Tip Open Us Up to This Kind of Fraud? -UPDATED

Will Leaving a Cash Tip Open Us Up to This Kind of Fraud? -UPDATED

Because my mother was a waitress who worked for mainly for tips, when my husband and I dine out we will very often strike a line through the “tips” portion of the bill, and leave our gratuity in cash. We do this for a couple of reasons — because often food-servers need the cash to pay the babysitter when they get home; because keeping track of what tips should show up on a paycheck is difficult; because why not let people access their tips immediately?

Well, we may decide to stop leaving cash. The question in my header is inspired by two disturbing stories linked to by Glenn Reynolds — both of which seem to suggest that if you leave a “tip” line open on a dinner charge, (or, actually, even if you don’t!) you’re inviting the sort of fraud that can bring defamation upon you.

Morales is still saying she is certain she didn’t receive a tip, and she can’t explain the evidence before her eyes. “I don’t know, all I know is what I’ve been saying.”

Look, I spoke up at the first (and I believe genuine) case of “hate-stiffing” and even harangued members of my tribe for self-righteously using scripture as a hammer in order to pound on those they identify as nails.

Now, I’m doubly pissed-off by these copy-cat fraudsters, who are now forcing us to re-think a habit my husband and I thought of as generous.                                     

I really hope that when people appear to be falsely accused of doing awful things (like leaving a gay-hating lecture in place of a gratuity) our friends in the gay community will also speak up, and denounce these fraudulent scenarios that play upon the sympathies of people of good will — whatever their creed, their race, their sexual orientation — and which only end up stoking the fires of resentment and distrust between people, where none should exist.