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

LameWolf

Not a chance. This sort of scam goes on all the time in Milton Keynes. In the scenario given, the station staff will sort out something for her if she is genuine.

itzmee

No I wouldn't because if it was me that lost my purse I would exhaust every possibility first before I degraded myself by begging. Also I'm very cynical and don't fall for these stories. The only time I have given change to someone was when a child couldn't get on the bus because he didn't have his fare. I have read plenty of horror stories where bus drivers wouldn't let a child go home because they had no bus fare. It was 50p and I'd rather a child got home safe than not at all.

ruth39

In Nottingham, about a year ago, there was about 4 people who used to hang around bus stops in the City Centre asking for money for the bus fare home - £1.20. I never gave them any. Even if it wasn't a scam they were all young people who could easily have walked the 2 or 3 miles home - I know I used to if I didn;t have my bus fare.

msv

Living in a major city I hear these lies regularly. They are characterized by three things: urgency (e.g. 'got to get to sick grandmother'), precise destination (specific name of station), non-rounded amount of money (£2.65). The example did not match these, so probably merits the offer to buy the ticket.

The ticket office will not sell a ticket on credit; however, if you find yourself in this situation, get a friend to go to another ticket office to pay for ticket which you can collect from your ticket office.

lauzjp

I probably would give her the cash as I am a sucker like that. No really, I often get asked a couple of my neighbours for money...

abcdenicola

If I felt the request was a genuine one, I'd go buy her the ticket, or offer to ring someone who could come and collect her.

I know what it feels like to have to ask, and it's not nice. We all need to get back in touch with our humanity, and not be so ready to believe the worst of others!

janaltus

geri1965 wrote: »

Has anyone else had people with large gaping wounds ask them for money to get a taxi to hospital? This has happened to me twice now (years apart) - how do they get these injuries?

Yes! A couple of people in Camden Town (North London) were running this scam for quite a long time. They used brilliant stage make-up (similar to the stuff used by St John's Ambulance first aid trainers) which, at night and under street lights, looked genuine. I think they eventually got caught and prosecuted.

Thirty years ago I got caught out by a pleasant chap who approached me outside Centraal Station in Amsterdam. Smartly dressed and with a petrol can in his hand he claimed to have run out of fuel, forgotten his wallet and needed to get to hospital because his wife was due to deliver their baby. He spoke in clear English and was very polite. I willingly gave him about five Guilders. Three weeks later, when I visited Amsterdam again, he tried the same scam. I started to use the station about once every month (for a year or so) and each time he would approach me. (I felt a bit offended that he never remembered my face!)

About ten years later I was leaving Tottenham Court Road tube station in London and the very same guy approached me - again with petrol can in hand, and tried the same scam. I was so gobsmacked I greeted him like an old friend and said, in Dutch, how nice it was to see him again and had he stopped doing his scam in Amsterdam now or was he just visiting?

His face was a picture! :rotfl:

JACEY

Iwould offer to buy the ticket instead of giving money.Iwas aske for money once to get something to eat, so I offered to buy sandwiches from shop next to me and was told "I don't like their sandwiches I prefer the other ones..which were more expensive" so I gave him nothing telling him he couldn't be that hungary.

Granny_Smith

Absolutely not....and I would add that 'When somebody gives it to me...I will give some to you.

Shame really as the 'scams' spoil it for anyone who is really in trouble.

missbutterflyblue

It's such a shame, but no. Smart, well dressed, asking for a relatively small amount of money - definitely a scam.

I say it's a shame, because the minority who prey on the generosity of others (and I have been caught out by things like this before) make it so very unlikely that anyone will help people who are in genuine need.

As an addendum to the question - assume you gave the woman the money (or even bought her a ticket), then happened to be passing back through the station an hour later, saw that she was still there, and saw someone else do the same thing. What would you do? Ignore it or challenge her?