Main Menu

Tip jar

If you like CaB and wish to support it, you can use PayPal or KoFi. Thank you, and I hope you continue to enjoy the site - Neil.

Buy Me a Coffee at ko-fi.com

Support CaB

Welcome to Cook'd and Bomb'd. Please login or sign up.

March 28, 2024, 02:50:30 PM

Login with username, password and session length

Ever Been Hustled?

Started by Wet Blanket, July 10, 2018, 02:34:16 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

ASFTSN

#30
When I worked nights a young woman on Charing Cross Road came up to me at 5am or so, with a bleeding mark on her forehead and tearfully told me she'd just been assaulted by her boyfriend and she had no money for food or shelter, and asked me for £20. She looked a right state even aside from the bleeding head, but was lucid and speaking clearly. So I walked to the cashpoint, got out £20 at which point she offered to write down her address for me so that I could get in touch and she would then pay me back.  I gave her the money and went to work, and then about halfway through my shift looked at the scrawl she'd written in the back of my sketchbook which was, of course, not actually writing.

Three weeks later she tried the same thing on me in the same place, still with the bleeding head, same story, clearly didn't recognise me.  I politely told her she'd already got £20 out of me and she flipped out and told me that I could still help her out rather than talking down to her.

timebug

We have a fairly local young bloke who stops you in the street and spins a yarn about having lost his money, and he only needs 'three quid' for his train fare home. First time, I said 'sorry, no money on me' (a lie as it goes!) but when he stopped me the second and third times, I just laughed in his face and said 'You don't have much luck with your train money, do you?' He resorted to advising me to fuck off etc,which was unkind of him, as I had tried (gently) to show him the error of his ways! And the weediness of his attempted scam.

Neomod

Quote from: ASFTSN on July 11, 2018, 09:09:01 AM
Three weeks later she tried the same thing on me in the same place, still with the bleeding head, same story, clearly didn't recognise me.  I politely told her she'd already got £20 out of me and she flipped out and told me that I could still help her out rather than talking down to her.

This is why you always taste the blood.

checkoutgirl

Quote from: SteveDave on July 10, 2018, 04:33:23 PM
My friend Ed once spent about 15 minutes waiting for a man to come back with a £5 note in exchange for the 5 £1 coins he'd given him for the parking meter in Brixton. It took all of my band to convince him that he'd been swindled. Ed sees the goodness in everybody.

That is brilliant. The image it conjures of Ed just standing there.

Shit Good Nose

Quote from: Danger Man on July 10, 2018, 02:36:43 PM
To my eternal shame my concept of myself as a sophisticated international playboy took a hammering when some bloke tied a bit of string to my wrist when I was leaving a metro station in Paris and demanded I pay him for the 'gift'.

I paid. He was big, black and scary.

Exactly the same happened to me and Mrs Nose in Rome, except instead of being big black and scary he looked exactly like Peter Andre (it wasn't Peter Andre) and he was wearing a heavy leather jacket despite the fact it was about 34degrees.  Fortunately Mrs Nose had no money at all on her and I had 42cents (we were, ironically, trying to find a cash machine at the time), so that's what he got.  So me and Mrs Nose felt like duped idiots, whilst Peter went off in a huff having spent nearly 20 minutes doing those laces with all his romantic spiel all for 40p.  No one won that day.

Kane Jones

Quote from: Danger Man on July 10, 2018, 02:36:43 PM
To my eternal shame my concept of myself as a sophisticated international playboy took a hammering when some bloke tied a bit of string to my wrist when I was leaving a metro station in Paris and demanded I pay him for the 'gift'.

This happened to me in Rome, and I still cringe with embarrassment whenever I think about it. He wasn't big, black or scary, but there were two of them.

Quote from: Shit Good Nose on July 11, 2018, 09:43:48 AM
Exactly the same happened to me and Mrs Nose in Rome

Snap.

ASFTSN

Quote from: Neomod on July 11, 2018, 09:30:26 AM
This is why you always taste the blood.

I saw her around a few times afterward  and I think she was deliberately re-opening a superficial wound on her forehead.

JarrowMonkey

I had the blokes in a van offering to sell me a laptop from the back of a van in about 1999, shortly followed by some other van driving types trying to sell me speakers from the back of a van

I'm dead hard and savvy, so said 'No thank you, its a very kind offer, but on my wage as a trainee policeman, I couldn't possibly afford it'

They drove off, fairly sharpish

checkoutgirl

Quote from: Shit Good Nose on July 11, 2018, 09:43:48 AM
Exactly the same happened to me and Mrs Nose in Rome, except instead of being big black and scary he looked exactly like Peter Andre (it wasn't Peter Andre) and he was wearing a heavy leather jacket despite the fact it was about 34degrees.  Fortunately Mrs Nose had no money at all on her and I had 42cents (we were, ironically, trying to find a cash machine at the time), so that's what he got.  So me and Mrs Nose felt like duped idiots, whilst Peter went off in a huff having spent nearly 20 minutes doing those laces with all his romantic spiel all for 40p.  No one won that day.

You should thank your lucky stars you weren't battered and marched down to the nearest cash point which is a well documented occurrence. Paris seems to be the world capital of this particular grift.

Danger Man

I think Thailand has the nicest hustlers.

Do you want to buy a diamond?

No.

OK, sorry for troubling you.

Hobo With A Shit Pun

Quote from: Depressed Beyond Tables on July 10, 2018, 04:10:56 PM
No response with Nick Cave.

It *looks*like his legs are made of string, but they're actually human limbs.

Wet Blanket

Quote from: St_Eddie on July 10, 2018, 03:44:45 PM
It might have been innocent but you were right to be catious.  If it were a scam, then do you reckon that they were going to run off with your phone?

Yeah I thought they'd either take my phone or ring New Zealand or something. To be honest when the pair of them approached me I thought I was in for an old fashioned robbing.

Quote from: ASFTSN on July 11, 2018, 09:09:01 AM
When I worked nights a young woman on Charing Cross Road came up to me at 5am or so, with a bleeding mark on her forehead and tearfully told me she'd just been assaulted by her boyfriend and she had no money for food or shelter, and asked me for £20. She looked a right state even aside from the bleeding head, but was lucid and speaking clearly. So I walked to the cashpoint, got out £20 at which point she offered to write down her address for me so that I could get in touch and she would then pay me back.  I gave her the money and went to work, and then about halfway through my shift looked at the scrawl she'd written in the back of my sketchbook which was, of course, not actually writing.

Three weeks later she tried the same thing on me in the same place, still with the bleeding head, same story, clearly didn't recognise me.  I politely told her she'd already got £20 out of me and she flipped out and told me that I could still help her out rather than talking down to her.

In Highgate in London me and a friend were stopped by a quite well dressed, middle aged man who began to spin a yarn about having just been robbed. My friend said to him, 'that's unfortunate, because you told me the same thing happened to you yesterday,' and the man sort of grinned in an 'it's a fair cop, guv' sort of fashion and moved on.

That always struck me as an interesting one because the hustler was a middle aged and middle class-looking feller. What turn of events had led to him becoming a grifter? Or is it just that, like everything else in north London, the street scammers are wankier? 

king_tubby

That bloke at Sheffield Interchange who needed cash for his bus fare to see his parole officer - is he still at it?

Norton Canes

Was on a National Express heading back to college once when a card shark type took the seat next to me and offered to show me how to do a card trick in return for a tenner. Ended up paying him because I was young and impressionable. Fortunately he did not go on to perform more tricks for further remuneration.

That sounds wrong.

Jockice

Quote from: king_tubby on July 11, 2018, 11:34:46 AM
That bloke at Sheffield Interchange who needed cash for his bus fare to see his parole officer - is he still at it?

Haven't seen him for a while (if it's the one you mean) but there are others up to the same trick. There's also another guy in the city centre who is always homeless and it's always his birthday. Three times in the last year I've had the same speech.

Talking of Sheffield I once crossed the road after being in the bank and was greeted by a very friendly bloke. I looked puzzled and he then said: "You don't remember me do you?" When I replied in the negative he asked what pubs I went to. I told him and he then told me he worked at one of them. He was pretty convincing too. He'd obviously done this before. He then went into a spiel about some 'deal' he was doing involving importing cigarettes and if I gave him 40 quid he'd be able to double it and he'd give me the cash next time I was in the pub.

Unfortunately he used a (racist) word I never use. If he'd really known me at all he'd have known that one of those types is one of my best friends. So I told him no and he stomped off. He'd obviously done this sort of thing before. He was very good apart from that faux pas. If I'd been a bit more unaware I could easily have fallen for it.

Oh yeah, there's some foreign aid bloke on Facebook whose thing actually looks fairly legit, but since I made a couple of small donations he now messages me practically every day, and it always comes round to him wanting me to donate more. If I ignore it or tell him I'm too busy to talk he'll just message me again the next day or even a few hours later. I don't usually defriend or block people but I'm getting very close with him.

Noonling

The only time I can think of is a "need money for the train" one many years ago. I felt it could be a lie, especially since he had the change he had supposedly received from other people cupped in his hands, but I figured I could afford to lose a pound or two just in case. So I stopped and pulled out my wallet.

Then he said he had been kicked out by his boyfriend and I was pissed off as it was obviously a lie (and designed to make people worry about looking homophobic), but I already had my wallet out so I gave him a pound.

Jerzy Bondov

Met a lovely gentleman in traditional African dress on the streets of Florence who turned out to support Liverpool FC! He wanted to sell us a fascinating little red statue of a bloke or a gibbon or something. Unfortunately I was obliged to turn him down as I wanted to look decisive in front of my wife. Later I saw him sitting around outside the Bascilica di Santa Croce in jeans and a v-neck t-shirt. Beautiful city. You can buy classic art literally on the street! Mona Lisa, the Birth of Venus, Heath Ledger as the Joker. Amazing.

It's good these days because you can say 'I don't carry cash, sorry' and there's a chance you might not be lying. I always am, but that bit of doubt makes me feel okay about it.

When I was 19 I got proper scammed on a train by the classic change bamboozle gambit. Bloke asks for some change, sees in your wallet and goes oh give me that fiver, i'll give you a couple of quid back, here you go, ah no hang on, give me that tenner, right now i'll give you six pounds, that's better, then you give me a quid and i'll give you 50p, there we are, now you give me your credit card, cheers, and I'll just slap you to the ground, brilliant, okay mate, thanks, big help, bye. Saw him again on the same train and told him to fuck off and leave me alone! I'd grown up a lot in the space of a week.

New Jack

When I was a student at Aston Uni there was an immaculately besuited fellow in town who would ask for money for the bus as someone was in hospital, iirc

One day I was going into the uni, walked past him, told him naaah mate, realised I forgot something about five minutes later and headed back, and he asked me for bus money AGAIN, the exact same line. Just walked off when I said "you asked me ten minutes ago"

steveh

Quote from: JarrowMonkey on July 11, 2018, 10:11:44 AM
I had the blokes in a van offering to sell me a laptop from the back of a van in about 1999, shortly followed by some other van driving types trying to sell me speakers from the back of a van

Someone once tried to flog me speakers from a van but I burst out laughing so he drove off immediately. Friend of my brother's actually fell for this though and ended up with some massive speakers for a couple of hundred quid with like 50p's worth of tiny 3.5" cones inside.

Famous Mortimer

I was in Tunisia and someone offered my then-girlfriend one of those headscarf things, for a reasonable price. But the rope that held it on your head was a great deal more expensive, and she felt she'd already bought half the set. I disagreed and threatened to beat the shit out of the bloke if he didn't give us our money back. Clearly his backup had gone to the loo, or he just thought better of getting into a scrap with a large angry looking guy over a few quid, and I got our refund. Not a recommended action, but it was a fairly touristy area and there were probably at least a few coppers around.

In St Louis (well, not just there), there's a chain of petrol stations / convenience stores called Quik Trip that are brilliant, fill up any container up to 100 oz. with not-bad coffee for $1.50, that sort of thing. My local has a guy who drives round and round the car park asking for money for petrol to get to Kansas City. I turn him down, because getting immune to being begged at is pretty essential here, but one day I said "if you're that desperate for petrol money, why the fuck are you burning it up driving round and round this Quik Trip?" He told me to piss off, but at least the next time he tried it on me his car was parked.


petril

Quote from: Wet Blanket on July 11, 2018, 11:32:01 AM
That always struck me as an interesting one because the hustler was a middle aged and middle class-looking feller. What turn of events had led to him becoming a grifter? Or is it just that, like everything else in north London, the street scammers are wankier?

There's the usual stigma/stereotypes about poor people(or just 'poor' looking people: unkempt stubble, clothes looking unwashed, untidy hair) automatically being thuggish scumbags, so yeah, any scammer worth their salt might want to look not like that if they can manage. More likely to make an amenable first impression, and get the punters to listen to you for at least a bit.

Sebastian Cobb

If you're wearing a sharp suit you're more of a grifter I reckon. Definitely cooler.

Wet Blanket

Quote from: petrilTanaka on July 11, 2018, 01:22:38 PM
There's the usual stigma/stereotypes about poor people(or just 'poor' looking people: unkempt stubble, clothes looking unwashed, untidy hair) automatically being thuggish scumbags, so yeah, any scammer worth their salt might want to look not like that if they can manage. More likely to make an amenable first impression, and get the punters to listen to you for at least a bit.

That seems more cynical to me. You can understand why someone at the very bottom of the ladder would resort to ripping people off, but this guy had obviously been a few rungs higher at one point. What had predicated his fall? Drugs? An addiction to Faberge eggs? Or simply a rebel attitude?

jake thunder

My mate once fell for the speaker scam. He managed to sell them off to a different mate afterwards though. Cheeky scamp!

I got scammed out of $4 in Times Square by a hip-hop crew for a one track CD which I assumed was a gift.

St_Eddie

#54
Quote from: Noonling on July 11, 2018, 12:48:12 PM
The only time I can think of is a "need money for the train" one many years ago. I felt it could be a lie, especially since he had the change he had supposedly received from other people cupped in his hands, but I figured I could afford to lose a pound or two just in case. So I stopped and pulled out my wallet.

Then he said he had been kicked out by his boyfriend and I was pissed off as it was obviously a lie (and designed to make people worry about looking homophobic), but I already had my wallet out so I gave him a pound.

As a general rule of thumb; anytime a person comes up to you, outside of a train station, telling you that they need a some money for a train (because they've lost their wallet / there's an emergency / they've got to get to a interview), it's a beggar with a bullshit story.  I usually give them a couple of quid but honestly, I resent the assumption that I'm an idiot, who can't see through their transparent ruse.  I'd much sooner they simply ask me for some money, to help fund their drug habit or whatever.

Gregory Torso

There are many scams in China that you're usually told about by some burnt ex-pat as soon as you get here. I've had a few taxi drivers turn off the meter mid-journey and when I try and say something they just grin and say "OK, my american friend!" and so the rest of the trip is an unbearable arse-clench ride as I gear myself up for a big argument and/or taxi flounce.

There's the peanut cake scam with a big peanut cake and a gentleman with a big smile and an apron will cut you a slice and say "OK my american friend" and you think ah OK, I suppose I'll have a bit of peanut cake and then his smile will vanish and he demands you now buy the entire cake or his brothers will remove your hands with cleavers.

Prostitute cards all over the ground in residential areas and communities: Exam-Cramming Student Fucks, Minecraft Ingénues, Sexy Field-Tilling Agrarian Virgins, that sort of thing. Russian girls, American girls, boys sometimes. Phone numbers for each, and I assume if you call the number a hand-picked selection of large and serious men is delivered to your door where they inquire as to whether you would like to give them 10,000 yuan or perhaps sir would be more comfortable with a chair leg up his arse and no more tears left in his body to cry.

I was in Hong Kong walking by the harbour once and this Indian guy came up to me and said "my friend, I see three things" and I said "NO", I don't know what he saw and I don't care. I don't talk to anyone now.

steve98

Quote from: Gregory Torso on July 11, 2018, 03:15:05 PM

I was in Hong Kong walking by the harbour once and this Indian guy came up to me and said "my friend, I see three things" and I said "NO", I don't know what he saw and I don't care. I don't talk to anyone now.

It'd have been the usual "... Trees Of Green, Red Roses etc" crap.

ASFTSN

A colleague at an old job was a proper Londoner (as in born there, not like 50% of us parasitic scum) and a lovely chap, but he said his only tactic these days was that if anyone approached him that he didn't recognise - young thug, frail lost old lady, abandoned child, confused tourist - it was just easier and safer in the long run to flatly state - not shout -  FUCK OFF without breaking stride. He reckoned it balanced out and I suppose he has a point.

Mind you he was stabbed in the thigh by a couple of strangers when he was 18 so fair enough.

Jockice

Quote from: ASFTSN on July 11, 2018, 03:41:29 PM
A colleague at an old job was a proper Londoner (as in born there, not like 50% of us parasitic scum) and a lovely chap, but he said his only tactic these days was that if anyone approached him that he didn't recognise - young thug, frail lost old lady, abandoned child, confused tourist - it was just easier and safer in the long run to flatly state - not shout -  FUCK OFF without breaking stride. He reckoned it balanced out and I suppose he has a point.

Mind you he was stabbed in the thigh by a couple of of strangers when he was 18 so fair enough.

Once I was down in London for a party and as it was pre-internet days I got off the tube at the alloted station and not
being sure where the pub we were meeting was, stopped a bypasser to ask for directions.

I got as far as: "Excuse me..." and he went:"Fuck off. I'm not giving you any money," and continued on his way. I shouted after him: "My jacket cost more than your house pal!" but I don't think he heard me.

All part of the joys of being Scottish and on crutches I suppose. Obvious beggar.

Anyway I found the pub and the people I was meeting but I'd also invited some other friends of mine who failed to show. Twats I thought until I spoke to one of them a couple of days later and found they had turned up - just in the wrong pub. There were apparently two identically-named boozers within half a mile of each other and one of them had asked for directions at the same tube station and got sent to the other place. They hadn't been happy with me either.

massive bereavement

I do wonder what kind of hours these people put in doing this type of activity. If they can make the equivalent of a day's minimum wage in a couple hours then I guess it's a sensible career choice, but if you're spending up to 7 hours a day, 5 days a week having to deal with the general public and being blanked or told to fuck off on a regular basis then they may as well join the living dead in getting a proper job. Being able to communicate and sell an idea must surely be a talent that's very much in demand.