Friday OT #2 - Con Jobs
- Thread starter Angie
- Start date
Didn't happen to me, but a story I'll never forget...
HS band trip to New Orleans. We break up into groups with a chaperone for each. One group finishes their day early and decides to walk to the restaurant where we were all meeting at the end of the day. The kids sit outside, the chaperone decides to go inside and sit down...
Kids are approached by a homeless looking person who says "Hey, wanna make a bet? I'll bet you $10 I can tell you where you got your shoes." Being young, naive, boys from small town Iowa, they thought "there's no way this guy is going to know Payless shoes in Dubuque, Iowa. This will be an easy $10." So, they take the bet. The guy says "I'll tell you where you got 'em, you got 'em on your feet right there, now give me the $10."
Nervously, the kid opens his wallet to get out $10, then another guy steps up and says "why don't you just give me all of it." I think they ended up losing around $200.
HS band trip to New Orleans. We break up into groups with a chaperone for each. One group finishes their day early and decides to walk to the restaurant where we were all meeting at the end of the day. The kids sit outside, the chaperone decides to go inside and sit down...
Kids are approached by a homeless looking person who says "Hey, wanna make a bet? I'll bet you $10 I can tell you where you got your shoes." Being young, naive, boys from small town Iowa, they thought "there's no way this guy is going to know Payless shoes in Dubuque, Iowa. This will be an easy $10." So, they take the bet. The guy says "I'll tell you where you got 'em, you got 'em on your feet right there, now give me the $10."
Nervously, the kid opens his wallet to get out $10, then another guy steps up and says "why don't you just give me all of it." I think they ended up losing around $200.
While sitting in my car at the West Hyvee in Ames, a middle-aged man on a bicycle pulls up and taps on my window. I crack it open and he says "hey man, you got any extra change I can have?" I say "let me check" and turn to my console to get some change for him, but then I realize in order to do that, I'm going to have to either roll down the window or open the door, neither of which I want to do. So I say "nah man, I don't have any, sorry."
He responds "are you sure? Cuz I really need some crack! I can sell you some weed if you want, but I just really need some crack!" I rolled up my window and drove away.
He responds "are you sure? Cuz I really need some crack! I can sell you some weed if you want, but I just really need some crack!" I rolled up my window and drove away.
Semi-unrelated note but did anyone else run into the panhandlers in San Antonio for the Alamo Bowl? Every time I left my hotel I ran into one
I might at-risk for a con, watching the link. Without viewing it more than once, I can't figure out exactly what the guy did. Everything seemed to make sense and seemed legit.
I visited Poland in the mid 90s during High School. It was an awesome trip, but in the big cities like Warsaw and Krakow there were a lot of gypsies that would beg for money. There were a few types, the adults mainly did some type street performance, but they'd send their kids to follow and hound people until they gave them money. It was especially bad when they heard you speak english and realized you were a foreigner.
One afternoon we were walking around and some kids started trailing us begging and pleading for money. I didn't have much of anything on me at the time, certainly nothing in a small enough denomination that I'd want to give anyway. However, I did have some hard candy in my pocket to snack on, so I gave them a piece of candy thinking that would appease them and make them leave us alone. Instead, the kid got pissed, threw it on the ground and started yelling what I assume were obscenities in Polish at us. They did end up leaving us alone though, so I guess that was a win.
One afternoon we were walking around and some kids started trailing us begging and pleading for money. I didn't have much of anything on me at the time, certainly nothing in a small enough denomination that I'd want to give anyway. However, I did have some hard candy in my pocket to snack on, so I gave them a piece of candy thinking that would appease them and make them leave us alone. Instead, the kid got pissed, threw it on the ground and started yelling what I assume were obscenities in Polish at us. They did end up leaving us alone though, so I guess that was a win.
Full disclosure, I originally read this as you visiting "Portland." Funny how only the part about speaking english made me think it wasn't Portland. Everything else still fit.
There is a guy who has worked the Twin Cities for years. He is African-American and always dressing very nice with a suit and tie and a great coat in the winter. He has a deformed hand that he usually has wrapped up in a paper towel or something. The first time he approached me he said that he was from out of town and his car had broken down. He cut his hand when he was under the hood trying to get it started. He then went on with something like he had left his wallet in his hotel room but he couldn't get back there without his car before his meeting so he just needed a couple of bucks for cab fare so he could make his important meeting on time. I smelled something fishy so I told him I didn't believe him and started to move on. Immediately his demeanor changed and he got extremely nasty.
He has approached me probably half a dozen times in the twenty years since with a generally similar story but he is always supposedly from out of town. When he approaches me I make sure to let him know that he has tried this scam on me multiple times and I am still not buying it. I make sure that others around me hear it so they aren't possible marks for him.
He has approached me probably half a dozen times in the twenty years since with a generally similar story but he is always supposedly from out of town. When he approaches me I make sure to let him know that he has tried this scam on me multiple times and I am still not buying it. I make sure that others around me hear it so they aren't possible marks for him.
Two stories both involving Lollapalooza (3-day music festival in Chicago).
In 2012 my older brother met us in Chicago and bought a single day wristband from a scalper for $100. It turned out to be fake but the dude at the gate kinda shrugged and let him in anyway, so that turned out well.
In 2013 it sold out before I could buy tickets the ideal way, so I went to eBay. Ended up buying two 3-day passes for $600 total. Bought them from a legit eBay seller that had many years of good feedback so I thought it was a safe bet. Tickets never came, they provided a bogus phone number and address as well. Thankfully eBay refunded my $600, but I gave up going to Lollapalooza after that.
Bonus, I had my gmail account hacked once and they sent an email to all my contacts about my family and I being stranded in Europe and in desperate need of money.
In 2012 my older brother met us in Chicago and bought a single day wristband from a scalper for $100. It turned out to be fake but the dude at the gate kinda shrugged and let him in anyway, so that turned out well.
In 2013 it sold out before I could buy tickets the ideal way, so I went to eBay. Ended up buying two 3-day passes for $600 total. Bought them from a legit eBay seller that had many years of good feedback so I thought it was a safe bet. Tickets never came, they provided a bogus phone number and address as well. Thankfully eBay refunded my $600, but I gave up going to Lollapalooza after that.
Bonus, I had my gmail account hacked once and they sent an email to all my contacts about my family and I being stranded in Europe and in desperate need of money.
Same thing happened to me. It seems like half of the world consists of these con artists.
Did something similar once and it was awful but I also kind of respected the guy for actually taking the time to record something and then sell it.
Occasionally I get the calls for someone saying my computer needs help and I enjoy messing with them by asking them to describe my computer, what exactly is wrong with it, if they know my name, etc. until they get pissed and hang up.
I once told them I don't have a computer but I have an abacus. The caller said that was probably the problem (he obviously had no idea what an abacus is) and wanted to start walking me through getting access to my machine. When I started talking about beads and asking where I should slide them he got frustrated and hung up.
The manager of the hotel we stayed at in Rome warned us about the kids. I had also read about them in a tour book. I always wondered if I took some fake money and gave it to them if they would realize it.
I was also on a subway in Rome and this dirty little girl got up and gave what must have been a sob story and then walked around with her hand out. The little old lady next to me started ******** her out in Italian when she got to her.
My parents recently went on a cruise. One of the ports they stopped at they were warned not to give money to the begging children. The tour guide said, "If you give them too much money, they will think they can survive off of begging and they wont go back to school."
Someone once conned me into thinking that a cauliflower pizza crust was a good, healthy option. They were completely full of ****. Haven't talked to them since.
