Woman Accidentally Enters Her PIN as a Tip



Tipping a server at a restaurant can be complicated, especially when you’re in a foreign country. Is 10% enough, is it too much, do they even tip here? Regardless of what continent you’re on or what country you’re in, you definitely don’t want to leave a tip the way a 37-year-old Russian woman did. Olesja Schemjakowa and her son had coffee and chocolate cake at the New Point cafe in Zurich, Switzerland, and she paid the bill with her credit card. However, when she was prompted to enter a tip, she accidentally entered her 4-digit PIN on the keypad. That meant her snack went from $25.78 to a heart-stopping $7,709. Olesja’s PIN — 7686 — added a 32,000% gratuity to her meal, which she didn’t realize until she got her credit card bill the next month. She immediately contacted the credit card company, but they told her an accidental charge isn’t the same as a fraudulent one. Olesja contacted the police, but they said no crime had been committed. Her next call was, of course, to the restaurant. To her surprise, she found the owner had filed bankruptcy and the restaurant had closed down. The owner promised Olesja she would get her money back, but she knows there’s little chance she’ll ever see that money. In the meantime, she has changed her PIN, hopefully to something cheaper.