S/O Beggars, Moochers and Scammers

[jmarvellous]

I was undecided whether to put this here or in the Freecycle/CraigsList thread. It would fit either one. An ad in the "Housing Wanted" section showed up this morning. This is so weird because if it were my mother I would move heaven and earth to get her back home including driving up there and getting her. She might have to wait at the restaurant for about five hours but by god she'd be taken care of. This is such an obvious scam it's hard to believe anyone could fall for it. And I hope no one does. (The area code is for central Texas too.) Is it me or are some criminals just really, really stupid?
 

Presently living in San Diego but have lived in Santa Barbara for the past 10 years. Lost my purse at the restroom under Brophy's and do not have the funds to get home and live for the next three weeks. If anyone needs pet sitting or would like to have a roommate to help clean and cook for a few weeks, it would greatly be appreciated.

I do not use drugs, alcohol or smoke. Middle aged professional female who is honest, clean and personable. I am completely criminal free, bonded and have three children who are in college and cannot assist me due to their financial obligations. I also have a medical background and could assist a senior citizen with cooking, light cleaning, driving, etc., as long as I do not have to lift.

Anyone who could help or assist, please, call me at (512) xxx-xxxx.

Somehow I skimmed the part where you said it's a Central Texas area code until I reread your post, but that stuck out for me, too. I mean, I haven't changed my cell # in 10 years since moving here, but in this case it's just one more fishy bit on top of the carp sundae.

[Yarnspinner]

Oh Lord.  Reading some of these brought back an even more painful tale of woe from two years ago.  I've written here before about my elderly neighbor who often shows up at my door seeking help because she doesn't want to bother her kids who live a few states away.  (So I call them and bother them instead.)

Anyway, about two or three years ago, she got involved in what I think is called the 314 scam.  Her kids called me because they hadn't been able to get through on the phone to talk to her.  Her sister called to tell me she couldn't get through.  So I went across the hall to tell her she needed to call them.

And found out that people stationed in a certain country had been calling her every five minutes or so to tell her she had won "The Haitian Millionaire's Lottery" because THAT sounded so legit.  They called about other lotteries.  They called to tell her about this prize she had won and that prize she had won.  But of course, first she had to send them several thousand dollars to pay the taxes on the prizes. 

I told her there was no such thing as a Haitian Millionaire's Lottery.  Her kids told her.  Her sister told her.  I found myself on the phone telling these people to do unenviable things to themselves  I brought her articles about the scam and why it was called a 314 scam (it's the area code).  SHE KEPT SENDING THEM MONEY ANYWAY. 

These people called pretending to be the FBI and telling her they would arrest her and her children if she did not comply with the rulings.  They told her I was lying and her kids were lying and we wanted to claim the  money for themselves.  She was getting neighbors to take her to her bank and the store to get bank checks and money orders. 

FINALLY, she had a stress attack and ended in the hospital and I insisted her kids come up and fix it.  To their credit, they did by getting her a new phone number.  (I argued that they needed to get her caller ID and an unlisted number, but they were SURE this would take care of the problem.)  Amazingly, the phone company even forgave the almost five hundred dollar phone bill she had from dialing back all those 314 numbers.  She couldn't get back the thousands of dollars she had sent, though.

Unfortunately, her kids and I didn't do as good of a scouting/clean up job as we could have:  she found a couple pieces of paper on which she had scrawled some of the 314 numbers AND CALLED THEM TO FIND OUT WHO THEY WERE.  And we were back to the races again. 

Her eldest kid got a clue and got her mother both an unlisted number and caller ID.

Unfortunately, Ruby still falls for this carp.  If you ask her why she says "Because I am an idiot."

Her kids have finally ante'd up to get her a companion three days a week, but I still wish they would consider assisted living for her. 

[Pippen]

if you have a look at 419 eater or other scam baiting sites there are some horrendous stories of people who keep getting taken in time and time again. Some victims even post on there knowing they are being scammed but think they are so far in they think if they can just keep going they will make it back. It is kind of like how some people get addicted to gambling. I think the biggest ever single scam pulled off the victim was a bank manager at Lloyds and lost 20 million pounds or something so a little old lady is an easy target.

[BabyMama]

My DH fell for a charity magazine sales scam and paid $75 for subscriptions that never arrived. I told him I didn't think it was a legit thing but he didn't listen. I've kindly refrained from pointing out the lack of magazines.

I never buy anything door-to-door other than from neighborhood kids I recognize.  Adults get my best stink eye which, I've been told, coveys the impression I'm compiling a description for the police.

My neighbor refuses to buy anything anymore door-to-door--the house up the street from us had an unsavory group of people living there (an undetermined number, sometimes they had kids of various ages, sometimes they didn't, their yard was always littered with toys/garbage, they didn't park in the garage because there were couches and a table in there--and it was quite obvious about what those were for, as they would smoke illegal drugs there and the smoke would float from their house, which was uphill a bit, down to my neighbor's, etc.) We called them The Felons (because the husband had some sort of felony, which my neighbor found out about after this incident. It was either for theft or domestic abuse but I can't remember for sure, maybe both?)

Anyway, one day before all this was known about The Felons, The Felons' kids went to my neighbor's house and asked if she wanted to buy some magazine subscriptions. My neighbor knew that the high school was doing magazines as a fundraiser, so she grabbed her checkbook and signed up for a couple magazines.

Apparently The Felons were able to get enough information off her check to drain at least a couple hundred dollars out of my neighbor's account. The police wouldn't do anything about it because the amount wasn't that high, even though they knew The Felons had done it.

It took them TWO YEARS at least to get evicted. 

[LadyClaire]

I read a news article about an elderly couple who spent their life savings and took out a second mortgage on their home because they fell for one of those scams. By the time their children caught on, the elderly couple were over $100,000 in debt, had a lot of "final notice" bills due, and were behind in their mortgage to the point that they nearly got foreclosed on.

[mbbored]

I read a news article about an elderly couple who spent their life savings and took out a second mortgage on their home because they fell for one of those scams. By the time their children caught on, the elderly couple were over $100,000 in debt, had a lot of "final notice" bills due, and were behind in their mortgage to the point that they nearly got foreclosed on.

I read a similar, if not the same, article. The craziest part about the article I read was that one or both of the couple were college professors, so it's not like they were unintelligent.

[Twik]

I was undecided whether to put this here or in the Freecycle/CraigsList thread. It would fit either one. An ad in the "Housing Wanted" section showed up this morning. This is so weird because if it were my mother I would move heaven and earth to get her back home including driving up there and getting her. She might have to wait at the restaurant for about five hours but by god she'd be taken care of. This is such an obvious scam it's hard to believe anyone could fall for it. And I hope no one does. (The area code is for central Texas too.) Is it me or are some criminals just really, really stupid?
 

Presently living in San Diego but have lived in Santa Barbara for the past 10 years. Lost my purse at the restroom under Brophy's and do not have the funds to get home and live for the next three weeks. If anyone needs pet sitting or would like to have a roommate to help clean and cook for a few weeks, it would greatly be appreciated.

I do not use drugs, alcohol or smoke. Middle aged professional female who is honest, clean and personable. I am completely criminal free, bonded and have three children who are in college and cannot assist me due to their financial obligations. I also have a medical background and could assist a senior citizen with cooking, light cleaning, driving, etc., as long as I do not have to lift.

Anyone who could help or assist, please, call me at (512) xxx-xxxx.

Somehow I skimmed the part where you said it's a Central Texas area code until I reread your post, but that stuck out for me, too. I mean, I haven't changed my cell # in 10 years since moving here, but in this case it's just one more fishy bit on top of the carp sundae.

It is, I suppose, quite possible that there is a person with so few people to call upon that they might find themselves stuck if they lost all the money they were carrying.

However, I would assume that most people would have enough money in the bank for a bus ticket home (banks must have some procedure to allow those who have lost their ID to access funds), or friends who could loan them the money. Even an employer who would invest in getting this "professional" person home? Failing that, would there not be some sort of local charity that could help? Are her three children, together, unable to come up with a bus fare for their mother?

I suspect that this is designed to sound plausible, but get people to contact going, "Oh, you poor dear, here's money for a ticket." It's an online version of the "I need 5 dollars for a bus ticket home" scam.

[Outdoor Girl]

A scam that has been going around in my neck of the woods is teenagers/young adults calling elderly folks and saying 'Hi, Grandma(pa).  I'm stuck in (whatever) town and need money to fix my car.  Can you wire it to me?'  Then Grandma(pa) says, 'Is that you, Billy?' and the scammer now has a name to latch onto and manages to get the money sent.

[2littlemonkeys]

Yarnspinner, that is so sad.

I just thought of another one from my college days.

I received a letter in the mail informing me that I had won a diamond.  From what contest, I'll never know.  I could respond to the letter and receive the diamond OR I could send in an exorbitant amount of money to get the diamond set.  I didn't like the settings so I opted to just receive the diamond and have it set later.

Three guesses to what never, ever materialized, LOL.  I was so dumb but at least my finickiness kept me from getting scammed.

We often get "Hey, you've won this fabulous prize for a sweepstakes drawing you never entered!  Just call this number and give us all your personal details and we'll send you two tickets to some random airline/cruise line straight away!"  I put them straight in the shredder bin.  MIL asked me once why we never claim them ("It's a free trip and you're throwing it away!") and finally DH told her that it was at best a time share scheme and at worst, totally bogus and just a way to get info to do further damage.

Outdoor girl, a woman at my old office was contacted by the "Mexican Jail" and told her son was currently in the pokey and they needed 100,000 for bail money.  Unfortunately for them, her son had just come into town for a visit and was no where near Mexico.  She did report the phone number (also American) to the authorities but I don't know what ever happened with that. 

[Twik]

A scam that has been going around in my neck of the woods is teenagers/young adults calling elderly folks and saying 'Hi, Grandma(pa).  I'm stuck in (whatever) town and need money to fix my car.  Can you wire it to me?'  Then Grandma(pa) says, 'Is that you, Billy?' and the scammer now has a name to latch onto and manages to get the money sent.

I was visiting my own mother when she got one of those.

"Hi, Grandma, it's your grandson!" in a voice that sounded early twentyish. Unfortunately, my mother's grandsons are all pre-teen, so she just said it was a wrong number, and hung up.

I warned her about it, so if she gets a call like that when the boys are bigger, she can tell what's going on.

[Sirius]

A scam that has been going around in my neck of the woods is teenagers/young adults calling elderly folks and saying 'Hi, Grandma(pa).  I'm stuck in (whatever) town and need money to fix my car.  Can you wire it to me?'  Then Grandma(pa) says, 'Is that you, Billy?' and the scammer now has a name to latch onto and manages to get the money sent.

Several years ago various relatives got e-mails like this regarding my brother, who was supposedly stranded in England.  "He" was requesting funds to be wire-transferred.  Now, Bro is in the military, so it's conceivable that he might be in England.  But that's where the plausibility ends.  Fortunately, my aunt who got the first e-mail e-mailed me to ask what was going on, and I called Bro and got his wife - who knew nothing about it.  In fact, he wasn't even traveling, although he does travel a lot, and she expected him home that night.  I called Aunt back and told her it was a scam.  I then got the same e-mail, and so did my sister, but by this time she'd been warned about it being a scam.  Bro took steps to safeguard his e-mail accounts better after that, and there's been no recurrence.

In my case, though, if someone called me claiming to be my grandchild, I'd know it was bogus because I don't have children.

[mbbored]

A scam that has been going around in my neck of the woods is teenagers/young adults calling elderly folks and saying 'Hi, Grandma(pa).  I'm stuck in (whatever) town and need money to fix my car.  Can you wire it to me?'  Then Grandma(pa) says, 'Is that you, Billy?' and the scammer now has a name to latch onto and manages to get the money sent.

I was visiting my own mother when she got one of those.

"Hi, Grandma, it's your grandson!" in a voice that sounded early twentyish. Unfortunately, my mother's grandsons are all pre-teen, so she just said it was a wrong number, and hung up.

I warned her about it, so if she gets a call like that when the boys are bigger, she can tell what's going on.

My 91 year old grandmother gets these all the time and has fun with them. "Suzie, is that you? Oh, no, what about the kids Johnny and Beth? Why don't your want your husband Henry to know? Oh wait! I don't have anybody in my family named Suzie, Johnny, Beth or Henry. Oh well!"

[Morticia]

I got an email claiming to be from a contract killer who had been hired to eliminate me. He offered to cancel the job if I would pay him instead. I forwarded the email to the RCMP, and no more was heard. But I really think that was crossing the line.

[BabyMama]

I got an e-mail from a lawyer's office offering me some kind of service (don't remember what, but it was quite clearly a scam--there were typos, vague language, etc.) I Googled the name and a real, legit law office popped up (they were even using the lawyer's real name). I forwarded the scam e-mail to them.  They sent me an e-mail back genuinely thanking me for alerting them and that they would "handle it." I really, really hope they caught the scammer...

[2littlemonkeys]

I got an email claiming to be from a contract killer who had been hired to eliminate me. He offered to cancel the job if I would pay him instead. I forwarded the email to the RCMP, and no more was heard. But I really think that was crossing the line.

   Crossing the line indeed.