S/O Beggars, Moochers and Scammers

[iridaceae]

When I worked fast food we had scammers left and right. "Oh you forgot my tacos /burritos /nachos ". No we didn't.  We had one scammer who came in every day and said "I ordered a taco with extra meat yesterday but you forgot to put it on so put it on today. "  She apparently decided we were too stupid to remember or compare notes.

We eventually banned her for thus as well as one ir two other reasons ans she immediately went to aa acquaintance that happened to be a new hire and whined wh6yyyyyyyyy were we being mean. We were more than happy to explain.

[rose red]

That reminds me of the time I was at a seafood fast food place and a woman stormed in saying they forgot her large order of hush puppies.  Nothing unusual about that except she looked at the rest of us customers very smugly and smirking.  There's no proof since I don't work there, but I sensed a scam.

[Bexx27]

There is a woman who panhandles outside upscale grocery stores in my area. She has a baby in a bjorn and a binder full of pictures of her older daughter, whom she claims has a brain tumor. A year or two ago someone posted a thread about her on a local parenting board asking if anyone knew whether it was a scam. She and her husband started posting in the thread! Most of it was the sort of incoherent rambling you'd expect from someone suffering from psychosis. The gist was that we're all brainwashed by the government and the only people living genuine lives are those like them who go "off the grid." (I put that in quotation marks because posting on internet forums and maintaining a facebook page and a donation website strike me as activities for which "the grid" is required.  ) In order to live (their version of) off the grid, they can't have jobs or a permanent residence because that would make them slaves to convention or something. Instead it's the brainwashed masses' duty to support their family of 5 living in a hotel for $3000/month.  The husband still resurrects the thread every few months to post more incoherent ramblings.

To the extent that panhandling is a profession, this is also a candidate for the Professional Darwinism thread. No one who's read the nonsense they spout would ever give them money.

[Jules1980]

That reminds me of the time I was at a seafood fast food place and a woman stormed in saying they forgot her large order of hush puppies.  Nothing unusual about that except she looked at the rest of us customers very smugly and smirking.  There's no proof since I don't work there, but I sensed a scam.

When I was pregnant with BabyJ, I was working with 2 empolyees one night.  A young man and a woman about my age.

The young man volunteered to do the food run for us which was unusual since he was using his mother's car and only had permission to go to work and right back, since he apparently never had money to put gas in it.  But, hey, whatever.  We figured he needed a break since he'd been having a rough night.  So we gave him our money, and in her case, her debit card.  (We trusted him.  He'd never misused anyone's card before.)  And sent him off with a list to Taco Bell.  Well, it seemed take him an extra long time to get back. 

When he did come back, we opened our meals and he had an exact same item as each of us.  Right down to the add-ons and no onions.  Other co-worker noticed and made a joke that 'working with the pregnant woman was finally getting to him' since my order was rather bland to avoid heartburn. 

He just grinned and said, "Nope.  I don't have any money till payday and since ya'll order together, I figured I could go in with you two's receipts and tell them they forgot part of your orders and they'd give it to me for free. It worked."

We were flabbergasted.  Not that he'd actually done that.  He was forever bumming cigarettes and free food at work.  But he was proud of what he'd done!  And you know it wasn't the first time he'd done that or he wouldn't have thought it would work.  SMH.

[MissRose]

I remember one guy kept calling my grandmother in a nursing home, keep in mind she is in her 80's.  It is possible he was going to ask her for sensitive details to scam her in some way.  My mother and my aunt (her daughters) have her power of attorney over her financial assets due to age and health.

Guy: We can refinance your home and mortgage... going and on and on... (and Grandma cannot get a word in)

Grandma: I have no home, I live in a nursing home but you can pay for that instead for me.

Guy: *hangs up*

Grandma has said he hasn't called back since.  She has no idea how he got her number in the first place.

[pierrotlunaire0]

Not scamming to get money, but:

First time teenage drivers complete a driver's ed course, and are given a completion card, and told to bring it into the local DMV to be issued an official permit.  Despite the fact that the card has red lettering on both sides: This is NOT a Driver's license or permit!; we periodically have the teenager who faithfully drives for at least 6 months (the minimum to move onto the next level) only to have the road test examiner inform them that they are not eligible.

Cue the frantic visit to the DMV: But I have been driving for 6 months!  You have to give me credit for that!  I can prove I logged my practice driving!  I have been driving!

That is when I have to explain that the central DMV's position is that if you have been driving on your completion card, you were doing so illegally, and they will not give you credit for breaking the law.  It can be crushing for a 16 year old to be told this, and I try to be gentle, even as I point out the fact that everything in the teen's hand that they received from the driving school warned them to go first to the DMV.

End BG, and enter my little scammer.  She happened to get a clerk who had just been written up for being rude to customers.  Rude Clerk was bending over backwards to help her.  Scammer had lost her original DMV permit, and needed to replace it in order to take her road test.  Rude Clerk had scoured the computer records, but could not find her.  We tried misspellings of her name, and transpositions of her birthdate.  No record. 

I am trying to figure out what happened, and I am going through the audit trail.  Mom is begging me: There must be some way to back date it.  No.  The only way, and the absolute ONLY WAY is to prove she received her permit 6 months ago.  I keep questioning the girl: "You absolutely did get it?"  Oh, yes.  Then mom would blurt in: "But if you can't find her, then there is some way to back date it?"  NO.

Mom is desperate, and Scammer is smirking at me, so I start asking different questions:  What color ink was the stamp that we placed on your permit?  Smirk: Black.  (We do not place a stamp on the permit).  I ask a few more trick questions, and Scammer proudly lies while her mom begs for backdating.

I had offered several times to issue her permit for the first time, but they both refuse,  I slide her paperwork back to her: You're lying.  Get out. 

There is a moment of silence while they look at me, and I smirk (not my finest hour, I concede).  Mom and Scammer crumple and leave.

[Barney girl]

Not sure if this is the right thread, but just heard of the two brothers who scammed a guy out of his winning lottery ticket.  When I first heard the story about how one of the brothers waited 5 years to cash in the ticket to make sure his girlfriend is not staying for his money, I thought it was weird.  Who the heck would wait 5 years to be a millionaire?  So I'm both surprised, and not surprised by the update.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/13/andy-and-nayel-ashkar-lottery-scam_n_2123886.html

As they've not been convicted and are pleading not guilty, wouldn't it be as we'll to drop an "allegedly" in there?

[squeakers]

Not scamming to get money, but:

First time teenage drivers complete a driver's ed course, and are given a completion card, and told to bring it into the local DMV to be issued an official permit.  Despite the fact that the card has red lettering on both sides: This is NOT a Driver's license or permit!; we periodically have the teenager who faithfully drives for at least 6 months (the minimum to move onto the next level) only to have the road test examiner inform them that they are not eligible.

That is so weird because in my state you have to have the permit _before_ taking the course.  Once the course is finished if they are under 16 they have to have 6 months supervised driving time (parents) and then they get their full license.  (Unless they are 14 1/2: then they are stuck on the permit until age 16.)

[pierrotlunaire0]

Oh, I tell you: the variation between states is enough to make me weep!  I do feel sorry for the customers.

[hjaye]

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.

My mom got caught in that scam, or one similar in nature.  I didn't find out until about two years after the fact, but she got a call supposedly from my son (her grandson) that he was in Canada and had been arrested and needed money for bail.  She sent it and of course my son was no where near Canada nor was he in any jail.

[ica171]

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.

My mom got caught in that scam, or one similar in nature.  I didn't find out until about two years after the fact, but she got a call supposedly from my son (her grandson) that he was in Canada and had been arrested and needed money for bail.  She sent it and of course my son was no where near Canada nor was he in any jail.

I like to think that my mother probably wouldn't go for anything like that, because if she got that call she'd immediately call me and say "WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME [CHILD] WAS IN A FOREIGN COUNTRY?" 

[Jones]

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.

My mom got caught in that scam, or one similar in nature.  I didn't find out until about two years after the fact, but she got a call supposedly from my son (her grandson) that he was in Canada and had been arrested and needed money for bail.  She sent it and of course my son was no where near Canada nor was he in any jail.

I like to think that my mother probably wouldn't go for anything like that, because if she got that call she'd immediately call me and say "WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME [CHILD] WAS IN A FOREIGN COUNTRY?" 

One of my grandparents would probably say "Well, if you're in jail you probably broke a law. Deal with it."

[wolfie]

If my grandmother got a call like that she would be like "WHAT??? I CAN"T HEAR YOU! SPEAK UP!!!" and then eventually hang up because she forgot to turn up her hearing aid.

[Pippen]

When I had my business not a day would go by without someone requesting a donation or product for fundraising. I got heartily sick of it but would always be polite in declining their request. I wold have gone broke if I had given even close to the outrageous amounts some people thought would be reasonable. Some people used to get very snippy with me. A woman came in one day and basically demanded I contribute a gift basket for a raffle as part of their school fundraising night. I told her that wouldn't be possible and she became very unpleasant about it. After she left I rang the Principal of the school she said she was from to tell them I did not appreciate her attitude only to be advised they were not doing any fundraising.

Oh and I kicked out my useless housemates last week who seemed to think paying rent was an optional exercise and thought that getting a new gaming console pack and planning a holiday to Thailand was a higher priority than ensuring they had a roof over their heads. Yeah it doesn't work like that. Goodbye Moochers.

[Outdoor Girl]

Oh and I kicked out my useless housemates last week who seemed to think paying rent was an optional exercise and thought that getting a new gaming console pack and planning a holiday to Thailand was a higher priority than ensuring they had a roof over their heads. Yeah it doesn't work like that. Goodbye Moochers.

Glad to hear you are no longer a 'soft touch'!  Passing over some polish for that new stainless steel spine...