Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community - View Single Post - Street scammers and pickpockets

Jinn · 11-11-2010, 02:54 PM

I saw this on the Consumerist today, and it's a bit terrifying because I'm the sort of person who would fall for this sort of thing - I have essentially 0 street smarts and have a difficulty being assertive to strangers who are trying to take advantage of me.

The "Dirt On Shirt" Scam - The Consumerist

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You are walking in a crowed street and suddenly you get something on your jacket. It can be anything from coffee to dog pooh. Faster than lightning a diverse group of friendly locals want to help, offering to clean your jacket with their very convenient napkins. Before you realize what is going on your wallet/money belt/camera/daypack is changing hands. The solution is to "be cool" when it happens, decline their service firmly and walk away fast. You can always check out the stains in a safer place later on. If you don't realize the scam before they are freeing you from your valuables, yell out and act aggressively. Trick thieves are rarely into attention and violence, but use your good judgement.

Commenters loaded up with other similar scams:

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I got hit in Chicago. Shoe shine scam. Guy offers to "show me what he can do" to my shoes, despite my weak protests that I don't need it. He does a half assed shine, and then proclaims that I owe him for the shine. A partner, larger and more intimidating, shows up to confirm his price. $8 he says...per shoe. For 4 minutes work. I got the feeling that I would be roughed up if I didn't pay, so I paid and got the hell out of there. They had the audacity to ask for a TIP as I left!

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A friend of mine got pickpocketed in Chicago on Michigan Ave. by a guy who kept bugging us to buy tickets to some random play. He kept asking, even though everyone in my group said no repeatedly. The next time she went to pay for something, she realized all her money was gone out of her pocket. She must have been so distracted by how annoying the guy was being that she didn't notice what happened at the time. He was probably just trying to keep her standing in one place for a minute or two and took off only when his accomplice got the cash.

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A more common version of this in Europe is when wandering shoe shine people "accidently" drop their brush. You're a good person, so you retrieve it or point this out to them. They motion that they want to thank you by giving you a shine and imply that its free, but don't say so explicitly. Then when its done, then demand a lot of money. You can't argue that it was free because they never explicitly said that.

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A few years ago, my college roommate and I had a 12+ hour layover in Amsterdam on our way to Norway, so we left the airport and decided to go out exploring the canal and Red Light districts (of course). We were just sightseeing and didn't utilize any of the district's services, but at one point some shady characters came around a corner, ran into us, acted like it was our fault, and then "accidentally" dropped their crack pipes on the ground.

This caused much consternation for them, as they were quite upset at the prospect of having to buy fresh crack. I thought about making a big scene or making a run for it, but there were no other people around and I didn't want to risk getting shanked. So I gave them €20 and that calmed them down enough for us to get out of there.

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In Barcelona at a shop the owner pointed outside to a pregnant lady waiting for the bus. She said the lady had pulled a scam there over several days where she would fake labor, have some tourists dive in to help, and her accomplice would relieve them of their wallets while they were distracted. The shopkeeper called the cops whenever she saw her but the scam was usually complete and the scammers gone by the time they arrived.

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Some guy tried to shake me down with the "dropped glasses" scam a few months back in Midtown NYC. I was just walking back from lunch and this large man casually bumps into me while holding his glasses in one hand. At which point the glasses fell to the ground and he starts making a bit of a scene about how their broken and they were expensive. He just kept going "What are you going to do about it?" I just told him he bumped into me, he dropped his glasses and then asked him how the one lense SHATTERED from being dropped from three feet up. He gave me the stink eye for a bit, asked one one time what I was going to do and then I just suggested we find a cop to help us.

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New Orleans has a good one. They'll come up and bet you that they can tell you where you got your shoes. If you're dumb enough to respond, they'll say "on your feet. Pay up." Then they'll usually point to some intimidating looking guy who will supposedly beat the hell out of you if you don't pay.

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Money changing by people on the street. Someone, often very nice and well spoken, will approach and have a seemingly reasonable excuse why they can't change money at a bank or kiosk, e.g., they had their passport stolen, and they'll give you a modestly good deal to change funds with you e.g., euros for your dollars. Once the transaction is complete, a confederate will appear and produce a badge, demand to see the bills and say they are counterfeit and begin to detain both parties for questioning. You're kind of freaking out and the guy you changed money with argues his case with the officer fluently in his native tongue and the end result is the officer "lets you off" by confiscating the bills and a fine.

.. and a kinda funny one by kids..

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In Morocco I got taken for a ride by a little kid. I got lost in the maze of souks (tightly packed and maze like stall markets) and wandered too far out. This CUTE little kid with his school uniform comes up and offers to show me the way back to the main town square. He starts taking me down allies and through side streets, after a couple minutes of this I got VERY concerned I was being led to an ambush. Once he thought we were sufficiently lost he started demanding money if I wanted to know the real way. I was so mad, I refused and walked the other direction. Thankfully I found a smaller square where someone else offered to show me "They way" I told them no and thankfully a mini-cab came along and he took me back to the main square.

Have you ever been 'taken' by a scam like this? Seen one take place? As I mentioned, I think I'd have fallen for all of these if I hadn't read about them first. I'm from a small city with very little foot traffic, and just recently moved to Seattle (which has a lot of foot traffic). The general lesson seems to be ignore anyone who asks for help or talks to you and keep your wallet in the front pocket (which I already do). Shame about having to ignore people who might legitimately need help, though.