‘It’s a who-you-know thing’: interactional fraud prevention in non-bank check cashing
Abstract
This article demonstrates how presentations of self and the information conveyed within them are a conduit for risk evaluation within the marketplace. Using the case of check cashing, it investigates customer screening within the Detroit area’s most prevalent non-bank check cashing businesses, which are not standalone check cashing outlets but rather corner convenience and liquor stores known as ‘party stores’. Without algorithmic techniques based on hard or quantitative data, how do owners screen customers to prevent fraud? Drawing on 35 months of ethnographic fieldwork, this article uncovers two strategies toward this end: (a) gathering private information about customers through small talk; and (b) assessing check cashers’ presentations of self. Analyzing check cashing and fraud in this setting speaks to theoretical perspectives of risk evaluation by presenting a case of interactional fraud prevention, which highlights the interpersonal, interactional mechanisms through which soft information is exchanged and assessed in ex ante screening.
https://doi.org/10.1093/ser/mwae028
Credit at the Corner Store: An Analysis of Resource Exchange among Detroit‐Area Urban Poor
Abstract
This ethnographic study examines how and why Detroit‐area credit‐ constrained members of the urban poor relied on owners/employees of corner convenience stores, known as “party stores,” for accessing short‐term, interest‐free informal credit services. Findings indicate that informal credit at party stores functioned as a low‐ or no‐cost alternative to formal credit and high‐cost fringe banking services such as payday loans, both of which were inaccessible and/or cost prohibitive for informants. These data contribute empirically to a growing body of research on “credit invisibility” by exploring these populations’ use of informal credit mechanisms. Findings also make a theoretical contribution by highlighting the importance of resource exchange networks through which members of the urban poor build strong yet disposable social ties in order to respond to economic shocks, combat food insufficiency, and survive economic destitution.
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/socf.12295
Other Works
“Urbanism” in The Encyclopedia of Urban and Regional Studies, edited by Anthony M. Orum. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley-Blackwell (for a link to purchase the full encyclopedia, click here)
“Anti-immigrant Political Movement” in People of Color in the United States: Contemporary Issues in Education, Communities, Health, and Immigration, edited by Huerta, Alvaro, Norma Iglesias-Prieto, Donathan Brown, eds. Santa Barbara: ABC- CLIO/Greenwood (for a link to purchase the full encyclopedia, click here).
Vance Alan Puchalski 