Con tricks and pickpockets

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Posted: Wed Jun 16, 2010 9:24 am

Not so you can do them, but so you know, when splattered by something unpleasant, or when someone asks you if you've dropped money, that you may be about to be robbed.......

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/8740984.stm

Brief highlights:

Quote:

1. THE SQUIRT

It can be a white mixture that looks like a pigeon's handiwork on someone's shoulder in the street or tomato ketchup in a cafe.

The scammer then helps their target clean up the mess, offering tissues, and while they do so steal the person's wallet.

2. THE PHOTO

A couple will ask their target to take a photograph of them and proceed to explain how the camera works. While their target is listening they are pick-pocketed by a third person.

3. THE ESCALATOR

So there you are, minding your own business, about to get off the escalator and the person in front drops their loose change.
As it turns out the person in front and behind you are pickpockets and in the jumble, they have lifted your phone from your bag or pocket.

4. THE SHOULDER SURF

At the cash point you carefully key in you Pin and the amount you want to withdraw, then you feel a tap on the shoulder and the person behind you asks if you have dropped a £10 note lying on the floor.

You take a quick look, maybe impressed by their honesty, say no and turn back. Your money is there, but not your bank card.

5. THE GOOD SAMARITAN

On the Real Hustle a member of the team dressed up as a businessman and told passersby he'd had his briefcase stolen. He asked for a small amount of money to get a tube ticket and asked for the person's business card so he could repay them.

The scam netted more than £50 in one hour.

The city near me is full of people trying number 5 who need money for the bus / petrol. I usually tell them to try something more original.

Posted: Wed Jun 16, 2010 9:46 am

When me and wifey were backpacking around Europe we came across alot of scammers (i actually was baiting from seedy back alley cafes that were frequently used by scammers the whole time too)

One I remember clearly was in Milan and a Rasta looking dude went to give me a "good luck bracelet" in one of the squares, as he tried to put it on my wrist he clearly tried to get my wedding ring.

My wife had a gypsy girl at the Vatican come up and tell her how she had lost her family and is stranded there and could wifey give her just one Euro, we later saw the stranded gypsy at a coffee shop an hour later with a crew of similar looking gypsies spending the Euros they had gotten

Laughing

Posted: Wed Jun 16, 2010 10:17 am

Watch out for the little old ladies in Spain too. Walking down the road on holiday a few years ago with my daughter - approached by 2 old ladies (80 if they were a day!) offering roses to passers by. While one of them asked for some change, the other rifled through my pockets looking for my wallet. She wasn't too subtle about it & I grabbed her wrist as she was about to plunge into my trouser pocket. Shocked

Posted: Wed Jun 16, 2010 11:16 am

# 5 happened to me last year just around the corner from where I live. A fairly well spoken woman, stopped me in the street and told me a story about her car breaking down on the way to an important meeting and she couldn't wait for the AA to turn up. She asked if I could lend her some money for the tube fare as she had dashed out without any money on her.

Well she picked the wrong person.

I worked in an antique shop for twenty years (where even the honest people are a little bit whoo, a little bit whaay) so I've heard every cock and bull story you can think of. What with that training ground and this sport, I slipped into baiting mode without even thinking about it. I actually started to feel a bit sorry for her after a few minute of my questioning. She finally twigged she was going to get nowhere and said she'd walk. Laughing

It wasn't until a few hours later that I thought about what could have happened if she had had a few male accomplices loitering in the background as back up. Confused

Master of Master Baiters Joined: 26 Aug 2006 Posts: 577

Stay away from the train station in Xian.

If you're a "da betsue" [westerner] you'll be lucky to get away with your undies.

Elite Baiter Joined: 02 Jul 2006 Posts: 1702

Ive never been pick pocketed thankfully.

On the london underground you do see a ton of it however, especially on escalators. and getting in crowded trains.

clicky

Ive always thought about going round the underground at rush hour with mousetraps set in my pockets... Smile

Posted: Thu Jun 17, 2010 12:13 am

^^^Last month I visited the UK for the first time since, oh, the late 70s when I spent a couple of months there. I noticed the Queensway tube station had the same sign warning against pickpockets that I saw when I was there the last time.

It's not just London. A friend of mine had his wallet lifted on the Chicago El last year. He said next time he was going to carry a decoy wallet stuffed with gay porn.

One scam I encountered in the 70s, but fortunately was warned about beforehand, involved a guy with a camera who would scope out tourists and get them to pose in front of some landmark, then take down their names and home addresses and promise to mail them the pictures in a week, after taking a couple of pounds from the mark. In my case, he tried to get me to pose in front of Nelson's Column. I blew him off, but if I had been in baiter mode maybe I would have gotten really agitated and asked him if my wife sent him since I told her I was in Berlin that day.

Posted: Thu Jun 17, 2010 12:50 am

The local street corners here have people holding signs making all sorts of claims of being homeless, in need of a gallon of gas, etc. Only one had and origial sign. "My Goldfish needs a Heart Transplant"