NATCHEZ &045;&045; Authorities are on the lookout for a group of people practicing larceny by trickery at area businesses.

In the last two weeks, six local businesses have reported being victims of the quick-change scam.

Typically two people approach the store, restaurant or bank and ask for change for a bill, Natchez Police Department Investigator Gary Nations said. Once the clerk starts passing the smaller bills the person changes their mind and asks the clerk to change a larger denomination bill.

Somewhere in the process the clerk gets confused and the suspect pockets some of the passed money. Oftentimes the suspect walks out with two or three times the amount of money they entered with.

Surveillance cameras at one local business caught two of the suspects on tape recently, and police are trying to locate them, though they do not know their names.

&uot;I’ve never seen it done,&uot; Nations said. &uot;But those people are apparently very good at it.&uot;

Nations advised businesses approached about giving change to stop what they are doing and call another person over to assist. If clerks suspect trickery, they should get all information possible about the person, including a tag number, he said.

Most clerks don’t realize what has happened until a few minutes after the suspects have left or sometimes when the money is counted at night.

So far the suspects have not shown any signs of being violent but have been aggressive, Nations said.

He is not sure how many are involved in the crimes, but they usually enter stores in pairs, he said.

&uot;They plan it and practice it,&uot; he said. &uot;They know what they are doing. Just like most people get up and go to work every day, these people are professional criminals who go to work every day.&uot;

The scam is something investigators have seen before.

Nations asked anyone with any information about the crimes to call Crime Stoppers at 601-442-5000. A reward will be offered for information that leads to an arrest.