Tried to prevent someone from getting scammed at the store but she didn’t listen

Thanks to this subreddit I was aware of the scam where some lady with all her kids comes up to you and asks you to buy her groceries. It actually happened to me just 30 minutes ago. She approached me with 4 kids and one of the large empty carts saying “I don’t have any money can you buy me groceries”. Her kid then says “please sir, please” like a corny script.

I tell them I don’t fall for those scams. She walked away without a word.

I immediately reported her to the store manager.

About 10 minutes later, I’m checking out and guess who is in line a few people behind me. It’s the lady and her kids with a full cart. She roped in some older lady.

I should have been more ready with an article or something pulled up but I just quickly went over and tried to let the lady know she was being scammed. She got defensive and said “well I’m not giving her money, it’s items, and she has her kids with her”. I said “you can spend your money if you want to but I needed to at least let you know. You can look it up yourself, it’s a scam”.

The scammer didn’t say a word and didn’t look at me at all.

I let the manager know again on the way out.

I feel like a dummy for not being more prepared about what exactly it was that the scammer would do. There’s so many scams to be aware of I couldn’t keep track of what specifically it was, obviously now that I’m in my car and looked it up, I remember it was about the receipts. I feel bad I didn’t remember at the time but I just wanted to do the right thing. 😔

I am shook that it really happened in front of me. Using your kids to scam people is more than nasty.