BEWARE! Blackpool Seafront Scam

codger

OP:

You may have lost money through your gullibility, but you've won friends here for your courage in writing about your experience.

Have to say, I am a little surprised that some posters think carnival life is all about genteel fun. Huh???

Years ago, I worked on fairgrounds: the hoopla sums you mentioned were lower then but the sales patter, exactly the same. The view was (and still is) that people who visit carnivals are there for the game. And the game is seeing how much they can be screwed over for.

Targeting was (and still is) as sophisticated as anything dreamt up by someone with a psychology Master's -- because it was instinctive, not learned from textbooks. So late morning, you looked out for groups of lads as hoopla fodder (only just staggered out of their B&B, still booze-brained from the night before); for mixed groups, to lure to the rifle gallery / shys (guys on an expensive macho ego trip); and groups of girls (get 'em to the dodgems: wasn't the money we were after, in their case).

Families, you needed to tread carefully: there wasn't actually any real desire to rip 'em off, yet it never ceased to amaze me, the amount a family with young children would spend on duck fishing (hook one out of the water, see if the number underneath the duck matched a prize) if you gushed with sympathy at every failure.

Early afternoons weren't as great as late mornings so stallholders' wives / mistresses / daughters would often stooge up with candyfloss in one hand and a large Teddy Bear in the other -- their "winnings", paraded to induce punters to get spending.

Nights were never a problem: family groups faded away, young adults with more money than sense were easy prey if only you could keep the daft beggars away from the thrill rides, because the more they spent on those, the less they'd have to lose on the stalls / galleries. It was best if they were drunk because the ride owners didn't want 'em vomiting from the top of the ride over the heads of the punters immediately below, so they were banned and had to come to us.

Genteel, harmless fun? Yeah. Right.

Anyway. That's long ago and far away. But. . . one thing remains a constant: the lure of easy money -- to the carnival workers. It's their Achilles Heel.

The Inland Revenue today is well aware of the existence of workers without NI (and claiming benefit) and pocketing large chunks of undeclared income. It doesn't like it. Nor do carnival / fairground site owners like the Thompson family in Blackpool: they're major blue-chip business people, and getting entangled in a Revenue investigation into just how much abuse might be occurring on their land is a definite no-no.

So in addition to complaining to Trading Standards (who I can't see being of any help, by the way) you might also like to write to the Revenue with "information" that £1,000s of undeclared income is being pocketed at the Pleasure Beach, and list whichever 'attraction' you feel like naming.

The Revenue's not daft enough to turn up on a face-to-face (nor should anyone: tangling with carnival workers is not recommended, though if you're looking to book a bed in Intensive Care, then going to a hoopla stall with over-sized throwing rings is a good way of ensuring that) but it is astute enough to seek operator details from site owners and to run checks on everything from NI numbers to home addresses to benefit payments to DVLC tax and insurance to . . . well, whatever.

The guys who took you down for so much money will find it considerably less enjoyable when taken down by a Revenue investigation. And the site operators -- and whatever the resort, they're all big, respectable businesses nowadays -- really won't want the hassle of contending with that as well as everything else, so even when an "attraction" is whistle-clean, it can still be booted off (happens all the time: I've known rival stallholders snitch on competitors just to get 'em off the turf.)

Good luck -- and, again, congratulations on having the guts to speak out here. And next time you go to any fairground, anywhere, take your brains but never your wallet, so that the cash you already have in your back pocket is the only cash you're going to lose.

uktim29

chocodawn wrote: »

Anyone can be conned by the people that make a living from tricks like this

I'm sorry, thats rubbish. I wouldn't have kept going like the op and from what I read here the vast majority wouldn't have either. Only a few will fall for this, not anyone!

It seems the op also went to the cash point to continue, and has said they were very intimidating. Well if the op thought this and managed to get away (which must have happend if they went to the cash point) why did they go back? So someone can't be that intimidating, if you walked off!

superscaper

codger wrote: »

So in addition to complaining to Trading Standards (who I can't see being of any help, by the way) you might also like to write to the Revenue with "information" that £1,000s of undeclared income is being pocketed at the Pleasure Beach, and list whichever 'attraction' you feel like naming.

I'm not seeing the connection between the Pleasure Beach and the OP's problem which didn't happen at the Pleasure Beach? As rich/powerful as I'm sure the Thompsons are they don't own all of the land in Blackpool.

Freddie_Snowbits

T'was in Skeggie a few years back with friends, when a similar thing happned to them. They urged me and the curvy Mrs Freddie to have a go, but I firmly said no.

Few minutes later so the coconut shy man in the pub further down the front and he bought me a beer, just to console himself for all the money my friend had lost! Never did keep in touch with them!

stphnstevey

You always wonder how these scammers make any money as there scams sound so unbelievable that anyone would take them up on it..................then you read about numties like this and it explains alot.........I blame the parents.....

goshdarnit

alchemista wrote: »

You could also try doing a small claims lawsuit if you'd like.

That would be a first in small claims, 'I want to sue myself for being gullible'

rosysparkle

Plenty of giant Eeyores on ebay and much cheaper than losing money on the hoopla!

I'm sorry you feel you were conned, but even the price of your first go at the hoops would have covered the cost of a soft toy. If the cost of entering a competition is more than the potential prize, it would be short sighted to enter, and this hoopla game is no different.

colmil

I've just found this post from two days ago,

Someone paid £10 to obtain a cuddly toy that probably cost less than than a pound for them to buy!

And they said that not everyone is bad!!!

I wonder if they fancy a game of cards?

codger

superscaper wrote: »

I'm not seeing the connection between the Pleasure Beach and the OP's problem which didn't happen at the Pleasure Beach? As rich/powerful as I'm sure the Thompsons are they don't own all of the land in Blackpool.

Whoops! Thanks, superscaper -- you're right, my fault for forgetting the location given in the OP. Yeeach!

superscaper

codger wrote: »

Whoops! Thanks, superscaper -- you're right, my fault for forgetting the location given in the OP. Yeeach!

Didn't want you to end up getting sued by the Thompsons . I'm not sure who they rent off along the "golden mile" though. Probably still all ends up going back to Blackpool Council.