Was I Scammed?

[theBruiser500]

Recently I was walking aroudn Sydney at somewhere between 10-1 AM I lost track of time, most likely 11PMish. I think I was in some place called kings cross which I read in a Lonely Planet is supposed to be a kind of shady place but it didn't seem like it.

Then a woman stopped me, almost passed me by and then amivalently at first but losing that ambivalence quickly stopped me and touched my arm a little bit. She was somewhere between 27-37 I'd say, with decent clothes and make up, okay looking. She kind of cried intermittenly and said people were being mean to her, and a cop was mean to her. She said her car broke down and she wasn't from around here and she needed $19 to get gas and said anything would help.

I decided to give her a few dollars for various vague reasons and then she said she'd pay me back, and so if she's going to pay me back I figued I better make it more than just a few dollars so I ended up giving her $9 or so and then she said, - Maybe another $10 or just $5 i really don't want to have to ask anyone else for money - I said no.

Then she asked for my email so she could pay me back. I just wanted to give her my address cause I didn't want to have to exchange emails and then meet up with her somewhere I just wanted her to drop the money off. At first she said my address is personal but I insisted (mistake?). Then she cried a bit and thanked me, and as she was walking away turned around to thank me a couple more times. Results to follow.

[jaxUp]

Huge cudos on balancing being a good person and a non-huge sucker. Limiting the money to $9 was a good move. You did a decent thing, and if you got scammed, you only lost $9.

NH.

[Reef]

no, since you still have your wallet

[nicky g]

There are loads of scammers in London who go around claiming they need some money for gas, the tube to get home etc. Most of them look pretty respectable. Obvioulsy these kind of things happen to people for real (my wife was locked out of the house just this morning and had to borrow money from a local shopkeeper we know to come and get keys off me), but the likelihood is you were scammed.

[fnord_too]

I said no but it may be semantics. You were pan handled. There are all sorts of lines people asking for money will use, and some people apparently make a decent living off of begging. At any rate, scamming to me implies that there was some sort of bait and switch or something; just asking you for cash is not what I would call a scam, even if you were lied to about the reason she wanted the money.

[jimdmcevoy]

If you're still in Sydney I recomend the bridge climb, it's a nice view from up there.

And if your interested the casino here has pot limit holdem, though the rake is pretty bad.

[TylerD]

Scammed. Ambitious scam though. $19! Most people who try this in the UK ask for 20p ($0.40)!

[Reef]

[ QUOTE ]
You were pan handled.

you were lied to about the reason she wanted the money.

[/ QUOTE ]

that's the wording I was looking for

[spamuell]

Most people who try this in the UK ask for 20p ($0.40)!

I get asked for a pound in London, I don't know where in the UK you are.

Do you give it to them? Sometimes I do, I'm pretty sure they need it more than I do. Other times though, pretty much because I don't want to feel like I'm being scammed, I'll just say I don't have a pound.

I actually was in a situation once where I needed someone to give me change for a fiver due to a faulty ticket machine and a guard who was definitely going to catch me, this was at Seven Sisters, and no one who passed would admit to having it. It's quite possible they didn't I suppose, I don't know if most people actually carry change for a fiver on them, but I'm pretty sure that my being a young male made them think it was likely a scam.

[daveymck]

Theres a guy who walks round Oxford on a night time asking everyone for 50p, he doesnt have a reason just asks for it.

Only time I have given money was a fiver to a girl who was with her grandad had ran out of petrol had no money and were literally pushing the car up the street.

[TylerD]

This was in Leamington Spa a few years ago. I've had a few people ask for 50p or perhaps a £1 but never more. I never give anything though.

[MHarris]

I voted yes, although this is less shady than much of what I've encountered. I used to run a pool hall in a shady area of Jersey, and the highway we were located on was a hooker/crack-whore haven. We'd frequently have them come in and ask for money for gas/tolls, coupled with some crazy story. Someone would throw them a few bucks and they'd be off to buy some rock.
One night, this woman comes in and starts giving me this crazy sob story, telling me how she lives in the motel across the street (hmmm...i wonder why) with her kids and basically going nowhere with the story. I ask her to get to the point and she tells me she needs $213 to pay for her room for the next week, and that she's friends with the "male manager" of the pool hall and she's good for it. So I inform her that I am the "male manager" of the pool hall, then ask her who's watching her kids while she's trying to squeeze me for crack money. She stormed out of there, and the regulars who heard our conversation and I laughes our asses off. Strangely, our crack-whores almost completely stopped coming back after that.

[slickpoppa]

I don't know if you got "scammed," but basically you just gave some woman 9 bucks towards buying drugs. You shoulda just let her give you a BJ and given her $20.

And BTW, stop wasting your time posting on 2+2. There are so many better things you could be doing with your time in Australia. If you are still in Sydney, check out the Taronga Zoo. Its a pretty good way to kill several hours.

[spamuell]

This was in Leamington Spa a few years ago.

Do you live there? There's a girl here in Romania who lives there and I really thought it was a tiny place where no one was from, I'd never heard of it before her.

[TylerD]

I lived there whilst at uni (Warwick). Its not a tiny place, its a mid-small sized town. The student area is downtown and is quite grimy (but decent enough for a student, better than Coventry anyway) whilst the uptown area is v. expensive and quite plush.

[voltron87b]

This one time me and a couple friends were walking around downtown NYC at night, 11/12ish, near the Christopher street 1/9. A few blocks north, on a small side street. This homeless man comes up to my friend and asks him if he has a dollar. We are all white boys who look decently well off, ie we should have a dollar. But this particulary friend is a notorious cheapskate, and literally does not have a dollar. So he says "No man, sorry I don't". The homeless man then looks at us all and says "Man, I'm not even going to waste my time with you pansy ass crackers, you're hopeless". He passes us and walks down the street. After he walks about 20 feet my friend runs up to him and says, "Hey man, I'm serious, I don't actually have a dollar". The homeless man then pulls a huge wad of one dollar bills (at least 50) and yells "IT'S NOT ABOUT THE DOLLAR BILL! IT'S NOT ABOUT THE DOLLAR BILL! IT'S ABOUT HUMANITY!" We all just lost it and broke down in laughter, and it took us about 10 minutes before we could move on.

[voltron87b]

[ QUOTE ]
Results to follow.

[/ QUOTE ]

Those three words made this post worthwhile.

[B00T]

Consider the $9 a futures bet on possibly getting laid.

[InchoateHand]

Dude, she hopped the first train for Cabramatta and stuck it in her arm.



In all seriousness, that was nice, a nice compromise, and even if she wanted it for "nefarious" purposes, whatever, its still nice. Nice.


And where were people like you when I needed them?

[voltron87b]

[ QUOTE ]
Consider the $9 a futures bet on possibly getting laid.

[/ QUOTE ]

It's a crackhead homeless woman.

[InchoateHand]

Unlikely to be a crackhead in Sydney. Not impossible, but unlikely. Far more likely to be a junky or strung out on meth, but the fact that she asked coherent questions makes me think no on the meth.

[theBruiser500]

So I saw her gave her hte money walked up the street and then half an hour later met her again walking back down the same street. She was crying and saying "thank you so much" to some guy in the exact same way she had said it to me.

me - how much did you give her?
girl - ignores me whole time
guy - it's none of your business
me - no it's cool i gave her money too
guy - $20
me - boy, i guess that gas is going to cost more than we thought
guy - it's okay leave us alone
me - no it's cool i gave her money too
guy - it's okay leave us alone

and it looked like the were having a nice chat as I walked away.

[stabn]

[ QUOTE ]
So I saw her gave her hte money walked up the street and then half an hour later met her again walking back down the same street. She was crying and saying "thank you so much" to some guy in the exact same way she had said it to me.

me - how much did you give her?
girl - ignores me whole time
guy - it's none of your business
me - no it's cool i gave her money too
guy - $20
me - boy, i guess that gas is going to cost more than we thought
guy - it's okay leave us alone
me - no it's cool i gave her money too
guy - it's okay leave us alone

and it looked like the were having a nice chat as I walked away.

[/ QUOTE ]

Looks like the forum called it, but it's really no big deal. I'd rather give someone ten bucks who didn't need it than fail to give someone ten bucks who did. I've given 5-10 bucks a couple of different times to people doing the whole gas thing in parking lots.

[InchoateHand]

exactly.

[stanky]

Could you transfer $10 into my netter account my car ran out of gas? /images/graemlins/frown.gif

-Pete

[Ionphore]

You have a kind heart bruiser. But after living in seattle for a bit, and even just living in normal suburbia most of my life. I don't even make eye contact with people who want money. There are always alterior motives. And if there isn't I do occasionally miss helping someone. But there are better ways I could allocate 10 dollar per say if I wanted to help someone. Also, I don't know if it was late at night, but going up to her while she is working some other guy, and trying to talk to him is a very bad idea. Its really best to just walk away.

Hypothetical scenario, you ask him how much he gave her. He says none of your business. Then she realizes who you are and tells the other guy you are stalking her or something of that nature. Then he pulls out a knife because hes a drunk idiot or something like that. I think you should be a little more careful.

[InchoateHand]

I make a point of only giving money to people who spell "ulterior" as "ulterior."


About the knife scenario. Whatever.

[stabn]

[ QUOTE ]
Could you transfer $10 into my netter account my car ran out of gas? /images/graemlins/frown.gif

-Pete

[/ QUOTE ]

If i thought it was remotely possible that you really needed it? Sure....

Unfortunately, i don't.

[Duke]

[ QUOTE ]
me - how much did you give her?
girl - ignores me whole time
guy - it's none of your business
me - no it's cool i gave her money too
guy - $20
me - boy, i guess that gas is going to cost more than we thought
guy - it's okay leave us alone
me - no it's cool i gave her money too
guy - it's okay leave us alone

[/ QUOTE ]

This conversation is awesome. She was right there?

~D

[JGalt]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
So I saw her gave her hte money walked up the street and then half an hour later met her again walking back down the same street. She was crying and saying "thank you so much" to some guy in the exact same way she had said it to me.

me - how much did you give her?
girl - ignores me whole time
guy - it's none of your business
me - no it's cool i gave her money too
guy - $20
me - boy, i guess that gas is going to cost more than we thought
guy - it's okay leave us alone
me - no it's cool i gave her money too
guy - it's okay leave us alone

and it looked like the were having a nice chat as I walked away.

[/ QUOTE ]

Looks like the forum called it, but it's really no big deal. I'd rather give someone ten bucks who didn't need it than fail to give someone ten bucks who did. I've given 5-10 bucks a couple of different times to people doing the whole gas thing in parking lots.

[/ QUOTE ]

F&^% em. At most give em a quarter for the phone and say call a friend or relative. Or better yet tell them to call collect. The amount of times I've had this happen to me is just obscene.

One time had a guy, huge dude, pull his car in front of mine to get me to stop. Gets out of his car and tells me hes locked out of his house and needs money for a locksmith. I said sorry can't help you out. His whole body tenses and makes a forward motion like he's gonna grab me, then he looks around and I guess realizes it may not be the best idea and takes off. I thought I was gonna have to do some window Kung-Fu on his crack head ass.