MONEY MORAL DILEMMA. Would you give a stranger £3?

brightonman123

i mighty offer to call a friend/relative to come and give her a lift, or arrange to pay for a ticket.. landline only though, no hidden premiu rates..

RSteve

No, no, no! It'll be a con. There was a man who went around Birmingham city centre in a suit who did this regularly - I know because it seemed to happen to him on a regular basis! He used to claim his car had been stolen, so I told him to report it to the police station nearby and they would help him with getting home. The second time I saw him, on a different day, I told him he had incredibly bad luck! The third time, several days later, I told him he had no memory for faces as it was the third time he'd asked me on three different occasions and to go and, erm, do something to himself!

Let's face it if was really a respectable businesswoman she'd know what to do in this event - if she'd lost her mobile as well as her purse (hmmmm.... unlucky isn't she!) she'd be able to make a reverse-charge phone call in a phonebox to a partner, family member, friend etc. to sort it out. She could go to a police station who also have procedures for this (I know, I work in one). If she was in the middle of nowhere and in a panic she'd find a phonebox and call the police.

If she went to the train station they'd also help her - again a friend, family member or partner could pay for a ticket for her with debit/credit card over the phone. Even if she travelled without a ticket and got a penalty fare, so what if it gets her home safely?

Basically, if she went to a train station or police station they wouldn't see her stuck, they would sort it out for her.

Put it this way - if you were in her shoes, would you really walk the streets asking random strangers for money? You'd be putting yourself in a lot of danger. Or would you sort it out in the one of the ways I describe above?

[Deleted User]

Yes, I would give her the money and have done a similar thing in the past.
Mainly because - don't shout me down, I'm just being honest here - she is a woman and because she is well dressed. Rightly or wrongly I would assume she wasn't a drug addict etc and so not likely to rob me if I got my purse out and secondly being a woman I would identify with her and not want to see her stranded.
Incidently, the time I was faced with a similar situation was on a train- I'd been having a conversation with a stranger sitting opposite me and then saw her again crying on the platform when we changed trains. She had lost her purse (she thought on the first train) and couldn't get her connecting train without her ticket or money. I gave her the £15. She said she wanted my address to return the money but I told her it was ok.
2 weeks later I had a letter turn up at work (we had talked about where I worked) addressed to girl who took such and such train to York. It had a lovely thank you note inside together with a cheque for £30.
Incidently, at that time I was a student and could really NOT afford to give her that £15, but I knew I wouldn't sleep that night thinking of her being possibly stranded.

penniek

Probably yes - but is it possible to go anywhere on a train for £3? But what else could she do? If the station was near enough I suppose I might go and buy her a ticket!

I'm a sucker as I have actually been fooled before - a pleasant young couple did a similar thing thing to me; they only needed £2 more to get a bed in a hostel for the night and had a credible reason for needing it. But later I saw them playing the same game with someone else. So I went and asked them if they'd lost my £2...

A friend of my son's had her wallet lost/stolen on a train in Poland and when the ticket collector came round and she had no ticket an elderly Polish lady gave her the money.

GreenVanMan_2

Oh No, it happened to me and I thought I was being helpful and now I realise I was just being GULLABLE.

sixtyplus

Once when reclaiming left luggage at Birmingham New Street we took pity on a chap who didn't have the £6.00 needed to redeem his case. Gave him the cash and he was most grateful and got his bag, then asked if we could round it up to a tenner so he could buy a ticket! We told him to sling his hook, but wonder whether the chap at left luggage was also in on the scam, as a bag was very definitely reclaimed.

Kat's_Dad

As much as most of us want to be Good Samaritans there are too many who have been victims of scams. I agree with others who say go to the kiosk and pay for the ticket. Twice I have been asked by women for money to buy petrol, saying their car is just round the corner and they have children with them but when they are asked to show where the car is, they walk off!

sresra

Yes
I believe that the number of good people outnumber the bad by lots and lots..............

Jake_027

No, sorry but no money from me. Far too many bad experiences.

Once I was at work and a guy came in asking for bus fare, I couldn't give him any shop money so I gave him the £2 I'd received as a christmas tip from a customer that day, never saw it (or him) again

Then in 2007 came back late from Manchester, was waiting for a connection at Halifax and this guy came and asked if we could help him with train fare to Leeds as he'd lost his wallet, had no mobile and had no friends that could come and help him out, so I did. Doing the same a week later he was there again :mad:

Nowadays, I just say I have no money, or if I do that it's for someone else or bus fare and walk away, I'm sick of being scammed. The only time I give money is if the person looks like they'll mug me anyway if I say no ( again the old I can only give you so much as I need the rest for bus fare comes in handy here!).

I'd used to think that I'd like people to do the same for me if I was in the situation, but these days I just don't think they would, and who can blame them with all the scams going on?

dbfisokay

Perhaps!

Money is not something I would freely give to anyone, however there are circumstances when it seems more easy than others. At face value, a well-dressed, smart woman is more likely to get my money than a beggar as my social conditioning is likely to cause me to think that the well-dressed, smart woman is authentic whereas the beggar might not be or will just spend it on booze. If the woman is attractive that will help grease the pockets of many men as well.

Truth is though, that con-persons are usually authentic looking so I'd probably respond differently in each case- just depends on the feelings I got.