Side Of The Road scams now!

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Posted: Thu Feb 04, 2010 5:30 pm

A little off-topic but sort-of relevant!

Drove back from West Wales to Birmingham today and as I came off the M50 to join the M5 north, a guy on the hard shoulder with his Merc virtually jumped in front of me waving a map and frantically asking me to stop.

Human kindness took over and I pulled over, opening the passenger window just a little. He came up saying that he'd run out of petrol & only had 1-2 litres left, was on his way to Glasgow and had lost his wallet. Could I lend him some money and he'll pay me back double tomorrow?!

He sort-of offered me some expensive looking jewellery as a deposit and after I told him I was skint, he asked me to go the services to get some cash and he'd follow me!

Trying to convince me he was genuine he thrust a business card through the gap for a German BMW garage, but if he was German I'm Doris Day. This was followed by him dropping to his knees and adopting a begging/praying stance.

Common-sense replaced human kindness and I pulled away a bit sharp!!

Is this a new 419-tactic??!!

Confused

Posted: Thu Feb 04, 2010 5:45 pm

Shoulda called the cops.
If only because he was stopping vehicles on a Motorway Hard Shoulder.

Baiting Guru Joined: 19 Mar 2007 Posts: 2628

He could be genuine
But I'd be suspicious too
Why set off on such a long journey without a full tank?
Didn't he have a mobile to phone a friend or collegue?
Couldnt he phone say the AA or RAc to bring him some petrol as they will do for stranded members?
If he lost his moblie I'd have thought he could have asked for a lift to a payphone to contact someone and not beg off a stranger.

Baiting Guru Joined: 19 Mar 2007 Posts: 2628

Oh and I agree, with Slightly.

Posted: Thu Feb 04, 2010 5:54 pm

I understand that's an old old scam. Usually not attempted on the shoulder of a busy motorway though, that's a new twist.

Posted: Thu Feb 04, 2010 6:29 pm

It sounds like an upmarket version of the 'can I have £1 towards my bus fare?, I've lost my money', very common in these parts. I'd be more likely to give them something if they didn't lie - 'Can I have £1 towards a Mcburger / my next hit?'.

Suprised he didn't try to sell you a leather coat or some speakers while he was at it, these %^&* are always on their way back from a trade exhibition somewhere.

The coats and speakers turn out to be cheap crap, of course.

Posted: Thu Feb 04, 2010 7:22 pm

The first hint should have been that he was driving a merc. Damn no good merc drivers.... and a merc owner from a bmw garage, BMW would love their business partners driving the competition im sure.

Posted: Thu Feb 04, 2010 7:44 pm

It doesn't make any sense. You don't lose your wallet while driving. And if he's lost it earlier, he'd have already have abandoned a journey of several hundred miles if he had no money or petrol.
Stupid place to try such a scam though. To much chance of a police car turning up.

Posted: Thu Feb 04, 2010 7:51 pm

In the US these hustles are common at interchanges and service islands along the interstate system. But I've never heard of a moocher flagging somebody down while moving!

You could have asked him to follow you up to the next service area and pull up to the pump, where you would be glad to put a few liters into his tank. Somehow I think he would have preferred the cash. Wink

Posted: Thu Feb 04, 2010 8:34 pm

Maybe it's just some lad on safari Very Happy

Baiting Guru Joined: 19 Mar 2007 Posts: 2628

@huntington, good point.

May be he HAD run out of petrol, in a stolen car!

Posted: Fri Feb 05, 2010 12:09 am

1 or 2 liters is not out of petrol-low yes,out no.Depending on the make of auto,he still had a few miles left.Odd flagging someone down before the car stops running.

Posted: Fri Feb 05, 2010 2:25 am

if he had 1-2 litres left he could have got to strensham serves 1-2 miles away.

Posted: Fri Feb 05, 2010 4:56 am

I got taken for a $0.25 back in the days before cell phones. Some guy comes up to me during the intermission of a play and tells me about getting pick pocketed and how he needs to call the police. I was standing there with an older gentleman when I gave the scammer a quarter instead of the dollar he asked for. As the scammer was leaving the older guy told me I got scammed, just look at the guy's wallet in his back pocket. Crying or Very sad

A few years later, by brother comes home with some random business card. He lent some guy that said he got his wallet stolen $40 so he could get some gas and get home. I told him to not worry about the $40 and that the business card was from an unknowing third party.

As I we were walking back to our hotel rooms in a convention area a scammer gave an co-worker and I a stolen wallet story. The co-worker ran away with a carnival before she started college so she heard it many times before. She actually sent the lad on a mini safari by arranging a meet on a fake floor of a fancy hotel with the promise of booze, sex, drugs and money. My co-worker would make a Master Baiter but says she is too busy.

Posted: Fri Feb 05, 2010 5:36 pm

sam vimes wrote:

if he had 1-2 litres left he could have got to strensham serves 1-2 miles away.

My thoughts exactly..................afterwards!

Why not drive to the pumps and ask somebody there? Not sure but I also think garages will take full details for later payment if someone's in real trouble.

Anyway I feel a bit of a d1ck for falling for it and stopping in the first place. Next time I'll just run him over.....

Very Happy

Posted: Fri Feb 05, 2010 8:40 pm

Quote:

Next time I'll just run him over.....

What and damage your car ?..... Laughing

Master of Master Baiters Joined: 26 Sep 2008 Posts: 689

Had someone do that to me the first time I drove on the M5 ... many many years ago. I got to the next service station and called out the boys in blue on him.

Posted: Sun Feb 07, 2010 5:06 pm

I'm seeing that a lot in parts of the US, but usually somebody working an area of gas stations.

I watched one guy for 30 minutes drive from one gas station to another near a big intersection......one on each corner, a fifth adjacent to one.

He'd pull up to anybody pumping gas, give them the pitch out of the rolled down window...move on to the next.

It would be easier to believe if he didn't burn up a gallon of gas while he was begging.

Shocked

Recently, an OK looking girl with her shirt unbuttoned far enough to determine she was braless and certainly female.....walked up to my car, leaned in, and told me she was 50 miles from home and needed a few dollars for gas.

I was sitting in vehicle off to the side, doing paperwork for my job. I told her no, and watched her make her rounds. She collected a few times, then made her way to a modestly beaten up car, where her BF was waiting behind the wheel. She gets in, he pulls up to the gas pump.......
INSERTS A CREDIT CARD....puts some in, then they drive over to the fast food drive thru window in the same complex, and buy food.

Talk about a cheap date?

Razz

Posted: Mon Feb 08, 2010 4:36 pm

I saw something similar the other week!

Not a motorway though but a bulk-standard A road, with layby. A normal looking car with someone of 'Indian' appearance, holding a map and waving at the traffic on his side of the road. Everyone ignored him, although some waved back Laughing

I wonder.....

Posted: Mon Feb 08, 2010 4:38 pm

Ms Mockinatrix wrote:

I saw something similar the other week!

Not a motorway though but a bulk-standard A road, with layby. A normal looking car with someone of 'Indian' appearance, holding a map and waving at the traffic on his side of the road. Everyone ignored him, although some waved back Laughing

I wonder.....

Must be the same guy!!

Laughing

Posted: Mon Feb 08, 2010 4:52 pm

I usually have my kids in the car, so the only people I pull over for are emergency crews (police, fire brigade, blondes in short skirts, ambulance,)

I had some guy tailgaiting me on the motorway the other day, flashing his lights waving me to pull over (in a Volvo 4x4 gold coloured).
So checked in my rear view mirror, no sign of a police sign (unmarked police cars have 'Police' written on their visors which they are supposed to drop down to show who they are, as well as the usual blue lights hidden in the grill), no warning signs on my dash, no strange sensations coming from the car, middle of the afternoon so it wasnt my lights, my indicator wasn't flashing so not that either, so ignored him. Later when the weirdo had gone, I pulled off the motorway, checked the car, nothing wrong. If this was the start of a scam (or worse), I have no idea.

Posted: Mon Feb 08, 2010 10:07 pm

Good defensive thinking Ricewind.

If I see a stranded motorist, I will use the cell and call it in as I drive by, noting mile/kilometer marker, make and model, description and observed condition (might be a medical issue visible) of individual. If this person is doing this regularily, it may be a precursor to worse behavior (carjacking, etc.) Call it in. Let the people we put in that job sort it out. Here in the States, I have know officers to give stranded motorists rides to the gas station to fill a gas can, or simply call for a tow. Not sure how UK officers would deal with it.

Posted: Tue Feb 09, 2010 4:21 am

This happened to me as well (sort of). I didnt know it was a scam, until after. This guy stopped me in the Price Club parking lot, and asked for 3 - 4 dollars (wont repay me) just to get over to a gas station, while there was a gas station about 90 metres down the street.
I regret giving him the $4 dollars, even though it was only $4. :roll:

Posted: Tue Feb 09, 2010 4:56 pm

Roycropper wrote:

It sounds like an upmarket version of the 'can I have £1 towards my bus fare?, I've lost my money', very common in these parts. I'd be more likely to give them something if they didn't lie - 'Can I have £1 towards a Mcburger / my next hit?'.

Someone once asked me for $0.25 toward a bus fare while I was at a terminal downtown. It didn't seem like too much, so I stupidly reached into my pocket to find I only had a $5 bill.

"Yeah, just give me that! I'll go get some change!" ... yeah, not happening.

Huntington wrote:

The first hint should have been that he was driving a merc. Damn no good merc drivers

I take out one pedestrian and everyone thinks I'm a bad driver now? Crying or Very sad

Posted: Wed Feb 10, 2010 2:08 pm

foo123 wrote:

I take out one pedestrian and everyone thinks I'm a bad driver now? Crying or Very sad

Yes, one pedestrian...

...2 bus stops, 3 police cars, a lamppost, the front of a Starbucks, 7 litterbins, an assortment of traffic cones, eventually ending up in a ditch that was being used to replace the old water pipes.

Not so much a bad driver, more a pinball wizard

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