SCAMMED - lesson learnt :(

vyle

I will add my support to never giving them the cash, but offer to buy them what they were asking for.

I've been asked for money for tickets home and whatnot, and the first thing I usually do is ask them how much the ticket is.

Because if somebody needs a ticket to most places where I live, it's going to be £3.50 or possibly a bit more if they need a day rider+. So if they came up to me saying "I need £2.50 and i ask what ticket they want, I can pretty much work out how much money they're claiming to have.

So the convo goes something like:

him: Can you spare me £2.50 for the bus home?

me: what ticket do you need?

him: home...

me: How much is the ticket?

him: RANDOM NUMBER

me: Oh, so you've got a couple of quid already? Great, gimme that and i'll buy the ticket for you when the bus comes.

him: uh...no....*shuffles off*

fluffnutter

I spent my student days in London, dressed in the ubiquitous outfit of DMs, scruffy parker and unwashed hair. Once, whilst stopping to tie my shoelace at the end of Hungerford Bridge, a woman pressed 50p into the palm of my hand and exhorted me to 'get a nice cup of tea, love'. Before I could refuse she'd rushed off, leaving me standing there, shouting 'I'm at university. I'm middle-class!' after her.

I was mortified, went home, and had a massive bath

juliedotcom

Oh fluffnutter that has given me a right lol!! Not quite in the same vein as the thread topic but if I have some change and see someone on the street, I'll usually pop it into their cup. This annoys my fiance quite a bit, as he subscribes to the "they're all junkies/alcoholics/scammers" school of thought.. but I can't just walk away, on the "what if..?"

a few months ago we were walking down buchanan street in glasgow and i spied a man sitting in a corner, legs hugged tight to him, cup in front of him.. i skipped over and popped a pound in his cup before noticing it was full of coffee.. and he was just enjoying the street performers singing.. i apologised and ran off rather red faced!

arcon5

THE AWARD FOR THE POST OF THE MONTH GOES TO

juliedotcom wrote: »

a few months ago we were walking down buchanan street in glasgow and i spied a man sitting in a corner, legs hugged tight to him, cup in front of him.. i skipped over and popped a pound in his cup before noticing it was full of coffee.. and he was just enjoying the street performers singing.. i apologised and ran off rather red faced!

I though fluffnutter's post was the best until I read this...

:rotfl::rotfl:

GlynD

Just think then: if you walk a mile in another man's shoes. You finish up a mile away and you have his shoes

tenmah

I am a single parent and some years ago had saved up some money to take my daughter to London for a birthday treat. At Liverpool St station we ran into one of these scammers who said he needed money to get home and his mum was at home and could verify him. He gave me a number to call to get the money returned the next day. I can't remember the full details but I gave him £10 to help him get home

I phoned the number the next day and the lady (who might or might not have been in on the scam) said that she had received lots of phone calls and she didn't know him.

What was most annoying was that my daughter had £10 less to spend that day and it has coloured my feelings towards helping people in that way in the future.

Hindsight is a great thing but at the time I just thought I was doing someone a good deed

brettcta

juliedotcom wrote: »

Oh fluffnutter that has given me a right lol!! Not quite in the same vein as the thread topic but if I have some change and see someone on the street, I'll usually pop it into their cup. This annoys my fiance quite a bit, as he subscribes to the "they're all junkies/alcoholics/scammers" school of thought.. but I can't just walk away, on the "what if..?"

a few months ago we were walking down buchanan street in glasgow and i spied a man sitting in a corner, legs hugged tight to him, cup in front of him.. i skipped over and popped a pound in his cup before noticing it was full of coffee.. and he was just enjoying the street performers singing.. i apologised and ran off rather red faced!

that's happened to my grandad before. he and my dad used to work together as electricians. one day he popped into mcdonald's to get a coffee (in his work gear), sat outside on a bench and all of a sudden had a £2 coin popped into his cup by some fella walking past in a suit. fortunately, it was enough to go in and replace the coffee he'd just bought

brettcta

my feeling sorry for people in the street came to an abrupt end about 2 years ago.

twice, in the space of a week, doing what i thought was better than handing over money, i had it thrown back in my face (literally).

this guy was asking everyone in the centre of manchester for enough money to buy a sandwich. i said no, but went and bought him one. handed it to him, he looked it at as if i'd just passed him a plate of !!!! and threw it at me as i walked off.

the 2nd one was about 5 days later. there was 2 people (man & woman) who would stage an argument in piccadilly train station near the taxi rank and then she would start asking people for money. i never handed anything over, as i saw what they were up to. anyway, this one night, i got into town, forgot my ID, so had to get the train back to mine. having walked past these 2 already, i just told her 'no, you've already asked me'. i then had the pair of them yelling at me because they haven't got any money to get a taxi and she was yelling that he was beating her up. my headphones went back on, hood up, walked off.

the next night, they were there again. she got to my friend, he was just about to hand over a couple of quid, and i told him about the night before. he didn't hand over any money and again, the shouting abuse started and she tried going in my mate's pocket to get the money he was about to hand over.

i don't even entertain stopping for anyone now, so i've not had any 'i need money to get to that building over the road to see my dying gran and my daughter and my dad

Alex-Riley.

Don't give them money offer to buy them what they need because a couple of months ago I went to Birmingham to go see a late night show only problem there were no trains by the time the show ended and the next day I realised I hadn't got enough money to get the ticket back home (I brought a full day ticket which was no longer valid) So someone offered to go up and buy me a ticket I was really happy

arcon5

brettcta wrote: »

this guy was asking everyone in the centre of manchester for enough money to buy a sandwich. i said no, but went and bought him one. handed it to him, he looked it at as if i'd just passed him a plate of !!!! and threw it at me as i walked off.

Good job he wasn't asking for a cup of tea or hot drink of some sort :O :0