Sometimes we feel like we get ripped off when we go shopping. That’s usually because prices are higher than we think they should be or because we end up impulse buying and have sticker shock at checkout. Thankfully, it’s usually not because we’ve literally been ripped off, but that’s not the case for every shopper.

There’s a scam that’s happening nationwide, and grocery stores are a common place for this scam to happen. Women are mainly the target because unlike men who keep their wallet in their pocket, women often keep their wallet in their purse, and they don’t always keep their purse close to them.

When a woman who carries a purse is at a store like a grocery store or a big box store like Target or Walmart, there’s one thing that is pretty tempting for her to do – put her purse in the cart. It seems obvious. Why carry around a heavy purse when there’s a cart right there that can easily hold it?

We have the answer. Because of thieves.

Inside Edition visited a grocery store to show just how this purse snatching scam works. Sometimes the thieves work alone, but other times they work in pairs. The one similarity pretty much every scenario had in common was a distracted shopper with a purse in the cart.

Inside Edition even went so far as to try out the scam for themselves. Working as a team, they successfully distracted shoppers and proved how easy it would be to snatch the woman’s purse from the cart.

Watch the video below to see this scam in action and to learn what you can do to prevent your purse from being stollen when you’re shopping.

Have you ever had your purse stollen? Do you usually put your purse in the cart when you go to a store that has carts? If so, are you going to start wearing or holding onto your purse while you shop instead?