People taking advantage of acts of kindness .......

Rob Keeble

Member
Messages
12,633
Location
GTA Ontario Canada
I thought i would put this out there as a kinda forwarned is forearmed lesson.

I refuse to allow the scumbuckets of the world to drag me down to their level and so consequently once in a blue moon come across one of these characters in life while trying to help someone out in this world.

So Sunday afternoon i am at the Borg and just finished packing my vehicle with materials. Quiet a job with my Jeep it was not designed to carry plywood.:D

So i get this car pull up next to me, i am in a predominantly Italian speaking area and this guy with the Italian accent pipes up in a nice friendly tone.


Excusa do you speaka da Italian.

NO! i said but i then proceeded to ask a few other people around thinking this poor guy is lost and heck he must be a touristo in need of help given the area i thought 99% strike rate was sure. But no luck at this time.

So i said let me see if can help.

He had typical hotel type tourist map and wanted to get to the airport. Anyway i start to give him directions but notice he aint really paying that good attention.

This was first alert to my amygdala that something was up. But i suppressed the thought and proceeded on. It was not difficult because the location was close to the highway.

Well direction over he proceeds to thank me and then enquires about what i do. He tells me that he works as a clothing rep for a reputable brand name in Italy and has just been to a launch for a upmarket store (all names left out to protect the innocent) at an upmarket mall nearby.

Everything about him was plausible and it the character you would expect.

Then he says hey mister whats your size because i have samples i brought with me i cannot take back for if i do they gonna charge me dozens of Euros. I give you a jacket dont worry its free. (Yeah right buddy :D)

Normally at this point i would have just turned and told him to get lost. But i am trying hard to fit in and be a polite Canadian. ;)

So i played along. Then he goes through doing what i call the "Petty coat lane" sales pitch.

This is a process whereby once you have a attentive audience where you have established a degree of rapport and credibility you create a value bundle in their eyes accompanied by all the "rights of passage" answers this person requires to burrow a path through to their mind and win the day with an overwhelming bundle offering that if done well very few can resist.

In London England there is a market held on Saturdays where one can experience this kind of selling over and over and its heck of an entertaining and unbelievable skill at work.

So the guy continues and after showing me these two jackets and peeling back the plastic covering enough to wet the appetite he says dont worry its free i cannot take them back. Thanks to you for helping me. Then he says you got a son. Sure i say. Whats his size. Tell him and he carrys on the banter oh he is a big boy.

Now he bundles the whole lot together holding it at the car window by the coat hanger and starts the pitch. Do you think you can do me favor and give me some cash to buy my son a present in duty free. Just something. So i pull out my wallet knowing full well i have $15 in there and that its not going to be enough and i say thats all i got. He says ahhhh but can you not get to a cash machine my friend.

Thats when i called time out and said sorry i got to go.

Now when i came home and told the story, it was unbelievable the reaction i got. No names mentioned but some ( we had vistors that just arrived) actually asked me how i knew he was not being honest and most would have bitten hook line and sinker. :eek:


Best advice is if something looks too good to be true it usually is.

But this experience did not stop me from helping a lady out of a ditch after she drove her car into it. Was a tough one she also had her aged mother in the car. Think the poor dear has not had so much excitement in many years.

You cannot let the guys like in my story prevent one from helping others. Just need to be on guard. :thumb:


Anyone else had a scammer experience lately. Usually they read my face and get the message before they open their mouths but i must be changing in my old age. :rofl:
 
Wow! must be a new scam going around everywhere because this is what happened to me yesterday:

I took my '93 camry in for a smog test. The car was in the smog test station and I was standing outside near the curb. A nice SUV pulled up next to me and the driver of the car rolled down the window and said something in spanish. I told him I didn't speak spanish and he proceeded to talk in english with a european accent. He had a map in his hand. He asked me if I knew where the convention center was. I said, yes. I thought his next question would be "How can I get to the convention center?". Instead, he goes to tell me that he just had a show at the convention center showcasing new Armani watches and he did not want to take them all back to Italy. He also said he needed some cash. He offered to sell me 12 Armani watches for the price of one. I immediatey sensed that this was a scam and besides, I don't wear watches and I am not interested in name brands. I quickly pointed towards my car. I told him I didn't even have money to upgrade my car. After glancing at my car he realized he was not going to get a cent out of me and he drove off.
 
Mohammad, you missed a perfect opportunity to handle all your Christmas shopping with one stop. Oh wait. Nevermind. :rofl:

I've seen a similar scam from guys selling stereo speakers out of a van. They "were left over from an installation job" and the seller doesn't want the hassle of taking them back to the shop. (Or he's trying to stick it to the boss.)
 
I've seen a similar scam from guys selling stereo speakers out of a van. They "were left over from an installation job" and the seller doesn't want the hassle of taking them back to the shop. (Or he's trying to stick it to the boss.)
That's a tough one Vaughn more than once I have seen/rescued things from the dumpster just because they where to good to be tossed out. Have no need for them but just could not let them be tossed. Happened just this spring the owner tossed out a whole tote of DVD's new still in the shrink wrap. I took the whole tot to the flee market and sold them for a quarter a piece.:thumb:
 
That's a tough one Vaughn more than once I have seen/rescued things from the dumpster just because they where to good to be tossed out. Have no need for them but just could not let them be tossed. Happened just this spring the owner tossed out a whole tote of DVD's new still in the shrink wrap. I took the whole tot to the flee market and sold them for a quarter a piece.:thumb:

I agree that it's a tough call. Truth be told, in this case I bought the speakers, and they ended up being pretty decent 12" three-ways. It was only until a few years later that I read about the scam, and it fit exactly what this guy was doing. They were selling Asian knock-offs of name brand speakers.

And dumpster diving is a whole other game. Lots of treasure can be found in those things from time to time. :thumb:
 
Ok, I have to tell my story too. My wife and I had just arrived at our hotel at Niagera Falls, (US side). We had just gotten out of our car when a man approached me and asked if he could get a a couple dollars and a ride to a car parts store because his car just broke down a few blocks away and he needed to get a new fuel hose but had left his wallet at home. He even had a small piece of rubber hose in his hand. I felt bad for the guy and wanted to help him out but felt uneasy about driving off with a total stranger. I told him he should go inside the hotel and maybe use the phone to call someone he knew for help. He said since he was not a guest then the hotel would not let him use the phone. At this point I was started to feel like he was making up excuses so I just said sorry I couldnt help you. He walked away.
My wife and I saw this guy "hustle" people out of "a couple" dollars several times that day. I even told the hotel desk person and he said that this guy had been out there most of the week and that they have called the police several times but he keeps coming back.
It was a slick scam....I wanted to help out....he just wanted money from someone who was new in town and had money in his pocket.
 
Sad, its things like this that make it rough if you actually do have a real problem to get anyone to help.

Not quite as bad, but there were some obviously sketchy folks hanging out down the road from where I work for a while this summer. I was walking by and a gal was there alone and wanted to "borrow my phone to call a friend to let them know that she was going to be picking something up at their house". My alarm bells went off and I responded that it was a work phone and I couldn't let anyone make personal calls on it (mostly true, but also I certainly didn't want someone setting up a drug deal from MY phone).
 
scam artists working parking lots like home depot, or tourists spots are not random, they know exactly when to catch people off guard or in a generally decent mood.
Niagara falls? Thats like crime central in NY. They cant handle the increase in thefts of tourists there because theres so much of it.
Ive seen so many scam artists, but my favorite of all time, the best Ive ever dealt with, was when The Metro police would call my business and ask for a donation to benefit the families of fallen officers.
problem is, theres no such thing as metro police in NYC.

Just say no to everyone. Its that simple.
 
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