Scams

clambot

Veteran
Joined
Jul 24, 2022
Messages
615
"Attacked by Gypsy Scammers..."
Here in my part of the US, we have the "Irish Travelers" and their scams, which involve (usually) knocking on your home's front door, then pitching their scam of the day. I've had people selling meat out of their truck, or promising to "fix" the driveway (or roof, or fence, or trim the trees, or whatever), the religious doorknockers trying to gain entry (ostensibly to pitch their flavor, but one of the pitchmen invariably will suddenly have to use the bathroom where they will pilfer cabinets and drawers for jewelry or pills while the other distracts), and I did have one of the old school magazine pitch to help pay for college.

Our town has a "No Soliciting" law--with the exception that, if one goes to the police, gets the Police ID with picture, and the official Solicitor's Permit, THEN they are allowed to knock and sell...provided that they display at all times that police permit. They never have it. In two years of answering these creeps with "Let me see your Solicitor's Permit, please." only ONE (out of dozens) had the audacity to hand over an obviously fake, self-designed permit. All of the rest either say "HUH??" or "Oh, my company has it on file." Wrong answers. I then state, "I'm calling the police. I suggest you leave this neighborhood before they get here."

They were persistent buggers, until I learned how to confront them (which included my .38 in my waistband.) We actually had a new group knock the other day. They skeedaddled pretty quick when I dialed up the police (I used the administrative contact, not the 911 line) and shifted my britches to make sure they saw my piece.
 

clambot

Veteran
Joined
Jul 24, 2022
Messages
615
There are plenty of gypsies here in the Balkans. Just people walking down the streets and asking others to give them money because they have nothing to eat, ....
Here in our major cities of the US, we just call them homeless...just people asking for money because they have nothing to DRINK (as in alcohol to drink.) They usually have plenty to eat or plenty of drugs, but alcohol takes cash money.

Ah, back to the scams, which have slacked off muchly because of FCC rulings against the operators of call forwarding services ... but I still get one or two Indians calling (the ones with dots on their heads, not the "HOW" American Indians.)

I have a new technique for those, which I find entertaining. As I string Rajish along as an old man, I am in the background queueing up some Eastern music--Panjub, or Hindu, maybe Tamil. Easy to find on YourTube quickly. Then, I play the music in my background so that Rajish can hear it ever so faintly. Eventually he will say, "SIR, could you please turn down your music??" as I increase the volume as he is speaking.

I play dumb, insisting to him that I am not playing music (as the young lady in the music video is screaming in Punjab and writhing for her boyfriend in the video. Quite a belly dancer, she is!! HOT DOG!!)

You see, Rajish is now experiencing the short-circuiting of his brain's language center: he is trying to maintain his poor English skills, while he is listening to music that is overriding his English skills. Try listening to music from your primary language while carrying on a conversation in a secondary language. LoL.

They try, but they can't do it. I am confusing their brains at a primal level. Its good for laugh.
 

clambot

Veteran
Joined
Jul 24, 2022
Messages
615
Scam City...Paris...
I miss the good ol' days prior to the ubiquitous phone scammers. When I worked in downtown Dallas last century (!!) I did a LOT of walking ... from the car parking on the edge of downtown into the city; later, from the DART train after they got that built ... the street hustlers abounded, to the extent that I almost ENJOYED the thrill of the next scammer.

I remember one bloke, just a panhandler, but he had GAME. Each day as I passed his "spot" he would nod "hello" to me and ask, "Brother, can you spare a dime?" I never could at first. "SORRY, man, I'm broke today, maybe tomorrow," was my usual response. He nodded thanks and always wished me a pleasant day. After a week or so of such pleasantries he began his game. Every other day or week, he would up the ante on me.

"Brother, can you spare a dime" became "Brother, can you spare a quarter?" Then after a few days of that, "Brother, can you spare a dollar?" That became five dollars ... then ten ... then a TWENTY as weeks passed. I stuck to my story of being broke, maybe tomorrow, and he upped the ante week after week.

The months passed by, and his requests would sometimes vary; never more than a twenty and never less than a dime, and always pleasant. It came to be that sometimes, I would actually say, "Brother, today I have good news; i have some change in my pocket and you are welcome to it!" He would thank me profusely, and we would begin the game again the next day.

I'm not sure how much in total I gifted him; I suspect that others on his "route" also gifted him something sometimes. It may be he actually made bank; I never asked, but he seemed clean and well-fed. Scraggly, yes; scrawny, yes. But never starving, dirty, or in rags. There came a day when I changed my route into the city (or maybe the man changed HIS route; I don't know) and I never saw him again. There are times I wonder to myself what might have happened to the fellow. But he was pleasant. I hope things worked out for him.
 

e-Enoch

Superstar
Joined
Sep 21, 2021
Messages
17,689
I miss the good ol' days prior to the ubiquitous phone scammers. When I worked in downtown Dallas last century (!!) I did a LOT of walking ... from the car parking on the edge of downtown into the city; later, from the DART train after they got that built ... the street hustlers abounded, to the extent that I almost ENJOYED the thrill of the next scammer.

I remember one bloke, just a panhandler, but he had GAME. Each day as I passed his "spot" he would nod "hello" to me and ask, "Brother, can you spare a dime?" I never could at first. "SORRY, man, I'm broke today, maybe tomorrow," was my usual response. He nodded thanks and always wished me a pleasant day. After a week or so of such pleasantries he began his game. Every other day or week, he would up the ante on me.

"Brother, can you spare a dime" became "Brother, can you spare a quarter?" Then after a few days of that, "Brother, can you spare a dollar?" That became five dollars ... then ten ... then a TWENTY as weeks passed. I stuck to my story of being broke, maybe tomorrow, and he upped the ante week after week.

The months passed by, and his requests would sometimes vary; never more than a twenty and never less than a dime, and always pleasant. It came to be that sometimes, I would actually say, "Brother, today I have good news; i have some change in my pocket and you are welcome to it!" He would thank me profusely, and we would begin the game again the next day.

I'm not sure how much in total I gifted him; I suspect that others on his "route" also gifted him something sometimes. It may be he actually made bank; I never asked, but he seemed clean and well-fed. Scraggly, yes; scrawny, yes. But never starving, dirty, or in rags. There came a day when I changed my route into the city (or maybe the man changed HIS route; I don't know) and I never saw him again. There are times I wonder to myself what might have happened to the fellow. But he was pleasant. I hope things worked out for him.
Lol...I guess you were a kind "victim..." Most probably that bloke remembers you pleasantly...:)
 

e-Enoch

Superstar
Joined
Sep 21, 2021
Messages
17,689
"Scammers Using Biden Admin's Border App to their Advantage..."

 
Top