Back in the 90's, my parents were making a purchase with a card, and the cashier told them that the machine was down, so he had to take a copy of the card to run it later. A quick swipe of their card throughv something that impressed it on carbon paper and off they went.
Not long after, police showed up at their door informing them that said cashier's apartment had been raided and a whole stack of copies of cards had been found; for every one he made for the store he kept one for himself.
Mind you, this was before ubiquitous cell phones, internet access, and way before chips in cards for encryption. Whether a similar tactic could work now I have no idea.
Customer A has an open tab, customer B pays with cash, put B's drink on A's tab and pocket the cash.