We’re used to scams occurring online nowadays, and are well-versed in not clicking links on sketchy emails or sharing our details with anyone we don’t trust.

But back in the days before widespread and constant internet use, scammers had to be more inventive in their methods, going door to door or preying on their victims via phone call.

And even today, these internet-free scams circulate, especially during the elderly community.

But when he was going about his daily work, the pizza delivery guy in this story never imagined he’d be caught in the middle of a scam.

Read on to find out how his intuition saved an old dude from getting scammed.

Scam Pizza Delivery

Last night I took an order, and on the receipt were directions to call when I was about five minutes away.

I called and this Indian guy answered and said he ran to the store and his dad would answer the door. He said to give him the phone when I got there.

When I get to the door an old guy – probably in his 80’s, and definitely not Indian – answered. He seemed super confused as I handed off the phone.

But what happened next was even weirder.

The scammer on the phone told me to get out of earshot so he could give “his dad” his safe combo, which I definitely didn’t do.

I could tell the man was confused, but he still invited me into his kitchen out of the cold.

Once in his kitchen, the scammer called the man by his name and told him to take a phone number down which he was frustrated by.

The scammer was then asking if he had cash to pay for the pizza and he would reimburse him – to which we both exchanged puzzled looks.

Luckily, this delivery guy wasn’t going to let the old guy get scammed.

At that point I took my phone back and said something along the lines of, “this guy doesn’t know you and this sounds like a very convoluted scam.”

The scammer then said, “no no, my dad gets like this sometimes, he has Alzheimer’s” (plot twist) which made the guy even more mad.

He said the man’s name again, and said, “we will be over there shortly and eat the pizza and reimburse you, so just pay for it.”

So I just took the phone and told him to stop scamming people, apologized to the guy and left.

But that wasn’t the end of the story.

I took a delivery near his house later and stopped by and told him what I think happened, because I left sort of quickly and he was probably just as confused as I was.

I told him not to give out any personal info over the phone, and especially not to give his card info to them.

We both laughed about how strange that encounter was.

What a wasteful delivery though, and so strange.

It’s always awful when people prey on the elderly, counting on their vulnerability and trustful nature.

Thankfully, the delivery driver in this story wasn’t about to be fooled, nor was he happy to watch an innocent guy get scammed.

Good on him.

Let’s see what the Reddit community made of this.

Some people were confused about how this scam would even work.

While others saw the positives in the situation.

Ah ha! That’s the scam!

It sucks that people treat their elders this way, and use the services of mostly independent businesses to do so.

The customer almost got scammed, and the pizza shop missed out on the price of a pizza they’d made.

It was completely unfair, and disgusting behavior from the scammer.

Lucky this pizza delivery guy was so switched on!

If you liked that post, check out this post about a rude customer who got exactly what they wanted in their pizza.