tuscl

Was this a scam?

gammanu95
My casual drinking is your alcohol poisoning.
Last night in Orlando for client meetings. Four of us were walking the couple of blocks back to the hotel from a restaurant. We hear a quiet voice behind us saying "excuse me, excuse me". We turn around to see a woman in her late teena or early 20s. Slim, dressed normally (fashionably torn jean skirt, black blouse, nice legs), generally attractive EXCEPT for the heavy makeup which couldn't conceal marks on her face. A couple of us felt they were meth scars, one thought she got hit regularly. She said something about needing help, just some money for gas, etc. We all begged off, and she thanked us for listening in a very sincerely dejected fashion. We immediately began talking about what time her scam could have been On the corner of the same hotel parking lot, about 50 yards away, we passed a large black man, holding a beer, a cigarette, wearing dark glasses after sunset, doing nothing but staring in that girls general direction.
Has anyone seen this, fallen for it, played it through to a happy ending?

18 comments

  • 4got2wipe
    8 years ago
    How much was she asking for? Did she imply that she would do anything except take your money?

    It doesn't seem like an brilliant way to scam guys unless there was more to the story.
  • RandomMember
    8 years ago
    "about 50 yards away, we passed a large black man, holding a beer, a cigarette, wearing dark glasses after sunset, doing nothing"
    ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

    That them there porch monkeys doing nothing better than smoking and drinking on the gov welfaaaare dime. Fuck that!
  • bang69
    8 years ago
    yes I had this happen before. All they wanted was drug money. I told her I had no money & she left.
  • rockstar666
    8 years ago
    She was an underage victim of sex trafficking; she wasn't 'late teens or early 20's". It's a PITA to get involved but hopefully someone does.
  • RandomMember
    8 years ago
    Actually, if you read the story literally, there may be no connection whatsoever between a "large black man" and a woman asking for money. Far more likely another example of @GammaNut's profound bigotry.
  • Call.Me.Ishmael
    8 years ago
    Regardless of race/gender, whenever someone just walks up to me and asks for a handout, I assume that it's a hustle.

    It's possible that I'm overly cynical, but I really don't think so.
  • twentyfive
    8 years ago
    @random my thoughts he just tries to make a connection where there appears not to be any what a bigot!
  • twentyfive
    8 years ago
    Actually if you wanted to do the right thing you could have called a cop and let them sort it out.
  • yahtzee74
    8 years ago

    Yes it's a scam. I fell for it once. She said needed money for gas and after I gave her some she asked if I wanted to drugs with her.
  • san_jose_guy
    8 years ago
    Where I have encountered street hookers working with a pimp, the girl is always straight up, "wanna date". And the pimp will also try to extend the offer himself too.

    So the girl may not have been a hooker, more just a panhandler. Maybe she did have some sort of an emergency, hard to tell. But if offering sex I believe she would have gone further to communicate this.

    Some girls, its in the way they just look at you, that they convey it, in places where street prostitution is not common.

    Lots of people try to get money or assistance out of strangers. Undoubtedly they have some genuine need. If one has no money and the car is out of gas or has been towed, they do have a problem.

    One girl tried to panhandle me and was straight, "I'm looking to get high." It was near one of our legal medical marijuana stores. She made me laugh with her honesty.

    SJG
  • san_jose_guy
    8 years ago
    Some meth dealers will offer a girl to "party with you". I know a guy who used to do this. He said that once he can get a girl to do that with a customer, then she is working for him.

    According to him, the girl will get something besides drugs, like maybe payment of a cell phone bill. I think it is kind of just to make her feel good.

    Some of our major local strip club OTC providers have been meth heads.

    If the girl said anything about meth or "partying" that could reveal this. Probably she would be spending more time with her client than a truly professional street hooker would, and especially a hooker working with a pimp.

    SJG
  • Papi_Chulo
    8 years ago
    Decent people usually don't go around asking strangers for $$$ and are usually responsible enough to provide for themselves or have family members to rely on - not to say that a decent person can't have a genuine emergency and need some help; but usually they are just scammers.

    I remember once on a weekend night I was gassing up and two young-chicks (late-teens/early-20s) drive up to me and ask me if I can give them some $$$ for gas - I give them a $10 and they just drive-off w/o gassing up.

    AFAIK the Orlando area has a lot of white-trash and a pretty-big drug-problem - and like many tourist-areas there are a lot of lowlifes preying on tourists.
  • flagooner
    8 years ago
    "AFAIK the Orlando area has a lot of white-trash "

    I resemble that remark.
  • flagooner
    8 years ago
    resent not resemble.

    Damn autocorrect.
  • Papi_Chulo
    8 years ago
    Sorry flag, I meant to say a lot of Caucasian trash, my bad
  • pistola
    8 years ago
    Yes its called a dash. Happens on busy intersections in seedy parts of town. Usually involves more than 2. While you were wondering about the 2nd person the 3rd and 4th wouldwouldve come in and taken everything. You did the right thing - if it dont feel right gtfo.
  • jester214
    8 years ago
    I've had people ask for "gas money" on multiple occasions. Even had a guy come into a restaurant once and announce to all the patrons he needed gas money to get home to his kids.

    I'm a fairly generous guy but also a cynical one. So my simple solution: claim no cash but offer to buy them some gas/food. Generally they looked shocked and change their story.
  • gammanu95
    8 years ago
    Thanks for the info. Funny addition to this story, I checked with a couple of the guys that stayed behind at the restaurant to drink and hang out, and asked them if they were approached by the same girl on their way home. It turns out she had been at the restaurant earlier while they were outside smoking, and was trying to convince the fattest, ugliest guy in the group to take her to his hotel room.
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