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.