Lads in person preying on men in San Jose CA parking lots

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Posted: Thu Mar 19, 2009 12:52 am

They're over here now and in person!

From the San Jose Mercury News, March 18, 2009:

Quote:

Con artists preying on men in San Jose parking lots
Posted: 03/18/2009 02:54:00 PM PDT

The well-dressed con man has been targeting his victims in various big box-store
parking lots throughout San Jose. Well-spoken with an African accent, the
swindler tells his victim he is lost and needs help. Soon the con artist is
flashing wads of cash and telling a grand story about inheriting millions of
dollars from an uncle who wanted to leave a large portion to the church.

...

He said he'd inherited millions of dollars from his uncle and showed the victim
a piece of paper detailing the inheritance and "two wads of money. " Soon the
con man was in tears, saying he couldn't take the cash back to Sierra Leone
because "it might fall into the wrong hands and be used to buy weapons to fight
war against his people".

The link is here:
http://www.mercurynews.com/topstories/ci_11942878
The San Jose Mercury News usually puts it's articles behind a log-in for the first day,
then lets anyone look at them.

Posted: Thu Mar 19, 2009 1:46 am

Yep, Cowboy, the lads are surrounding us.

Posted: Thu Mar 19, 2009 10:29 am

If he is unwittingly intruding onto gang turf, they will take care of him.

Posted: Thu Mar 19, 2009 3:46 pm

Tuco wrote:

If he is unwittingly intruding onto gang turf, they will take care of him.

That's the first thing I thought of when I saw "San Jose".
Not that all of San Jose's population are thugs, but there's definitely a lot of iffy spots.

Posted: Fri Mar 20, 2009 6:52 pm

As much as I respect the Law Enforcement Officers working to protect their communities (yes, I do indeed appreciate them, and I personally have known more than a few, including several who were injured and one who was killed in the line of duty) -- was anybody else here troubled by the quote attributed to San Jose police Sgt. Dean Ackemann?

"The underlying motives for the victims is greed," Ackemann said. "They are promised this large amount of money. They think they're going to get something for nothing. They are lulled into a false sense of security and they get scammed out of their money."

When reading the full story, more than a few other “underlying motives” occurred to me about the possible mindset of the victim(s) -- none of which were “greed.”

In my opinion, a victim involved in such a matter might INSTEAD or ALSO have been moved by other motives -- examples given below.

(a) “LOST STRANGER” approaches local person in a parking lot
= “victim” reacts with feelings of pity, compassion, concern

(b) “LOST STRANGER” asks for assistance in locating a local church, and accepts a ride
= “victim” goes out of his/ her way to provide transportation, moved by generosity, intention to help

(c) “LOST STRANGER” refers to church, religion
= “victim” is further touched by apparent connection through shared faith, religiosity

(d) “LOST STRANGER” ( a guy ) breaks into tears
= “victim” has intensified reasons to feel more pity, more compassion, more concern

(e) “LOST STRANGER” says if help is not given, result could be violence and even war
= “victim” feels that he is making a noble contribution to personal and/or community peace

================
I’m aware of European and American versions of the “pigeon drop” which have apparently been around for decades, if not for centuries.
(Shoot, it was glorified from the side of the criminals in “The Sting,” wasn’t it?)

But I would argue that in the particular case described, the scammer relied on far more decent emotions to entice his victim into making the monetary exchange
. . . long before either greed or simple naivete got the victim to the tipping point.

And perhaps some victims would be less embarrassed to report such crimes if victims were more likely to be characterized as "generous" or "overly trusting" when public statements hit their local newspapers.

If I lived anywhere near the San Jose area, I’d have already written a letter expressing such sentiments to the newspaper as well as to the law enforcement officer -- along with my thanks for his diligent work on this case. And I’d have signed my real name. But I don’t, so I won’t.

Thanks, everyone, for your patience with my rant for today.

Elite Baiter Joined: 02 Jul 2006 Posts: 1702

I think if someone did a full survey the "victims" would be found to be of average intelligence and 9/10 greed would NOT be the factor.

Love scams, theres no greed there, the money is stolen trying to get a partner they are scams so that has to add to the percentage.

The sick evil twisted demented scourge of the earth who claim to have cancer, in many cases the scam is where an unwitting persons sends $20 out of concern. Those need to be added to the percentage.

Hitman scams, this are another set of sick twisted scams, where a victim is terrified into giving money.

Sure there are scams that vulnerable victims fall for, they owe banks and everyone else money so its understandable that they would make such a mistake - but thats desperation NOT greed.

And finally there is greed, but whats its percentage - if we take the well documented evidence produced countless times by hundreds of baiters, id say greed does not make 10% of victims.

Its easy to blame greed, then we dont have to actually think about other people or identify others have needs etc, it really makes me angry that without a moments thought its instantly about greed. Its usually people in circumstances they cant cope with that fall for it. I can give a million different reasons all of them are not greed.

Posted: Sat Mar 21, 2009 3:02 am

Scary, and too close for comfort even though I don't live near there.

Tuco wrote:

Quote:

If he is unwittingly intruding onto gang turf, they will take care of him.

Yeah, where's a MS13 gang member when you need him? Sometimes it takes a snake to get a rat Wink

Posted: Sat Mar 21, 2009 9:36 am

Recently a serial sex offender in the UK was caught who was using a similar tactic.

He was a taxi driver who claimed he had won the lottery, showed a bundle of notes to the victims and offered a glass of champagne, which had been laced with Rohypnol. He had been doing this for years until he was finally caught.

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