Swindled

[somervilledog.livejournal.com]

This happened in the Union Square neighborhood, on Preston Road, near the intersection of School Street and Summer Street.

Last night around 11:30 p.m. our doorbell rang. My spouse answered the door, and it was a young woman—"freaked out"—who had locked herself out of her apartment. She asked for $20 so that she could pay the locksmith and said that, as soon as she had paid the locksmith, she would go an ATM machine and return the $20.

Needless to say, she never came back.

I called the Somerville Police Department this morning to report the incident and was treated with condescension by the officer who took the call. I was told that this is an ongoing scam and that, unless victims report the crime immediately, there is nothing the Police can do.

I told the officer that, while I could appreciate his frustration that citizens are not reporting the incidents in a timely manner, I did not appreciate his condescension. Furthermore, I noted that there has been no public information about this scam. If the City and/or the Police Department had notified the public about the scam, citizens like me could recognize it and report it while it is in progress. The officer replied that there was nothing he could do about the lack of public information.

So I called Thomas Champion, Director of the Executive [i.e. Mayor's] Office of Communications. Champion told me all about the City's new 311 non-emergency service system, which is accessible to Verizon phone customers. (I am an RCN phone customer.) When customers (i.e. citizens) call 311 they will receive a tracking number so that they can track the status of their customer service order on the internet. This part of the system has not yet been implemented.

Champion said that my call was the first call had received about the grift. The Director of the Executive Office of Communications did not state that the City would notify the public about the I'm-locked-out grift.

The swindler:
white, female, late 20s
reddish hair, shoulder length, pale skin and dark eyes
thin build, thin face
clear local accent, though not a really hard Somerville one
wearing black, knee length, quilted parka, no hat, no gloves
called herself "Jen"

Comments

[darthcr1.livejournal.com]

Yeah... I got hit up for money near Harvard Sq. a few years back. The guy wanted money to get a cab or commuter rail tickets to go to his wife's office to get the keys to their apartment. Had a really nice sob story. I suspect I gave him a few bucks.

Then about a year later the same dude came up to me in Central with the same story. When I called him on it, he was a bit beligerent and then ran away.

Basic rule here is that most people are pretty okay, and the criminals LOVE that sort of convenience.

[frederic.livejournal.com]

I did the same thing to the guy at Park St (red line part) asking for money since he missed his last commuter line train. Besides calling him on the fact that he's done this before, I even had his commuter line schedule memorized.

Also did the same thing to the guy in J.P. who claims that he got a flat and needed money for the fix kit or other. Usually claims to have a kid (who is either nonexistent or the guy is a bad parent for just leaving him). Same story, same part of town.

I just don't give people money on the street (or subway station).

[protogeek.livejournal.com]

Same thing happened to me in Davis a few months ago, a guy asked for money for a cab, saying his wife was in the hospital and he needed to get to her. The tipoff for me was that he was so drunk he couldn't keep his story straight.

[prog.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that guy. The last time I saw him I said "We've spoken already" as soon as he trundled up to me, and he went "What, I just needed directions to Porter Square!" Uh-huh...

[komos.livejournal.com]

A couple of simple questions are often enough to determine if the person is trying to play you. Generally, if you go for actual details about their story or about themselves, grifters will decide that you are more trouble than you're worth.

[tisana.livejournal.com]

Yeowch.
Not just because that's an awful way to play on someone's generosity or the way you were treated...but because I locked myself out of my apartment the other night, when it was cold and I couldn't reach someone who had spares, and that description could almost apply to me.

Thanks for the warning.

[komos.livejournal.com]

I should start collecting these stories (http://www.livejournal.com/users/komos/250420.html). There are about as many variants as the Nigerian 419.

[protogeek.livejournal.com]

Thanks for this!

For people who don't want to say no to someone who seems to be in need, here's one way to weed out the fake: tell her you'll set up an appt with a locksmith for her, and you'll all meet at her place for the locksmith to let her in.

[ceo]

Wow, that's slimy.

For future reference, the Somerville Fire Department is happy to help with lockouts. (At least, they seem to do a lot of them, according to the fire log in the Somerville Journal.) So you could give her their non-emergency number and suggest she call it.

I got a bridge to sell you...

[cosinezero.livejournal.com]

Uhm, whenever anyone asks for money, start asking them for more info. Which house is yours? Let's go there and ring the doorbell just once for kicks. No one who's conning you is going to let you do that.

How about this for condescension - You got swindled, sucker. Use your head. What do you expect the police to do when you -give- someone your money without so much as questioning it?

On second thought, what's your address? My, uh, baby carriage ran out of gas and my poor child needs formula.

Thanks for trying to help out and all but it's suckers like you that encourage, not discourage, this behaviour.

Re: I got a bridge to sell you...

[hammercock.livejournal.com]

And reactions like this are the reason lots of scammed people stay quiet and help create a societal blindspot that prevents more people from spotting the scammers.

Re: I got a bridge to sell you...

[rxrfrx.livejournal.com]

Yeah, and that's exactly why the Nigerian scammers keep finding marks, right? Because nobody realizes it has ever happened? Gimme a break. There will always be rubes easily parted from their money.

Re: I got a bridge to sell you...

[hammercock.livejournal.com]

Yes, there will always be people who get scammed. I'm just saying that ridiculing them doesn't help the scammer problem, nor does it help the people who got scammed.

Re: I got a bridge to sell you...

[rxrfrx.livejournal.com]

Ridicule, insult, a lesson, whatever... I just hope the OP has learned that when someone you don't know asks you for some cash, with no assurance whatsoever you're going to get it back, you don't give the cash.

Re: I got a bridge to sell you...

[hammercock.livejournal.com]

Sure. I figure if it happens once and you learn your lesson, yeah, it's embarrassing, but you move on. If you don't learn your lesson and keep losing money to scammers...maybe then the ridicule is more appropriate. :-}

Anyone is capable of being caught with his/her guard down once in a while.

Keep the bridge, but if you need money, just ask.

[turil.livejournal.com]

I figure if someone else is that desperate for money, and I can spare it, they probably need it more than I do.

The thing is, I give away most of my spare money (to people I believe can put it to good use), so I don't usually have any left over for scammers...

Re: I got a bridge to sell you...

[cosinezero.livejournal.com]

Not buying it, sorry. You can write off 'complete and flagrant lack of basic common sense' as 'societal blindspot' but that's just candy-coating the truth - that there's a sucker born every minute.

Re: I got a bridge to sell you...

[hammercock.livejournal.com]

Sure, there are lot of credulous people out there who get cheated. But ridiculing them doesn't help them and it doesn't stop assholes from trying to cheat them. So what are you getting out of it by pointing and saying, "What are you, an idiot?"

Re: I got a bridge to sell you...

[cosinezero.livejournal.com]

What am I getting out of it?

I'm making the world a better place by making other people (a) think before they give their money and (b) think before they post a sob story about how they were suckered into giving someone their money.

Like it's somehow the police's bad work letting this happen to them... sheesh.

Re: I got a bridge to sell you...

[aroraborealis.livejournal.com]

Oh, huh, it's easy to misread your "making the world a better place" for "making someone who was well-intentioned but gullible feel like shit." Thanks for clearing that up.

Re: I got a bridge to sell you...

[larksdream]

*snerk*

Re: I got a bridge to sell you...

[pierceheart.livejournal.com]

Like it's somehow the police's bad work letting this happen to them... sheesh.

Actually, police shouldn't be treating ANYONE with ridicule or condescension, no matter who they are, or what they have done (or had done to them).

It's called professionalism.

And, really, no, you aren't making the world a better place, anymore than I am when I yell at people who don't use their turn signals.

Re: I got a bridge to sell you...

[hahathor.livejournal.com]

Actually, I think that the original poster is making the world a better place by warning us about this; because it might cause people to think before giving up their money. If the threat of ridicule now keeps other victims from posting to this group, then you have effectively prevented them from making the world a better place. Which is a great strategy if you make sure nobody gets wise to the con artists - hmmm, if I were a con artist, I'd probably be posting EXACTLY the type of stuff you're posting here.

I'm just sayin'.

Re: I got a bridge to sell you...

[cosinezero.livejournal.com]

If this group becomes a posting board for victims of crimes targetting stupid people, freedom loses and an indian cries.

No thanks, I

[turil.livejournal.com]

Lemme guess, you had a rather authortarian father when you were growing up? Did he say "I'm doing this for your own good" when he yelled at or hit you?

Negative reinforcement never works, in the long run. It just makes people angrier and more rebellious. Positive reinforcement, on the other hand, nearly always works well.

Re: I got a bridge to sell you...

[hammercock.livejournal.com]

Like it's somehow the police's bad work letting this happen to them... sheesh.

I'm puzzled as to where you came up with that based upon anything I said.

And anyway, (a), (b), and (c) can all be accomplished without acting like a jerk to someone. For instance, I'm pretty sure that the OP already has come up with (a) all on his/her own.

Re: I got a bridge to sell you...

[cosinezero.livejournal.com]

Oh, and not to mention (C) keeping money out of the hands of addicts and criminals.

[toonhead-npl.livejournal.com]

At the first place I lived in Dorchester, someone pulled the same scam. He even showed me the broken key that supposedly had snapped off in his lock. And $20 later I am wiser. Never again.

[infinitehotel.livejournal.com]

I'm less surprised by the grift than the risk/reward ratio. $20 is a pretty lousy payoff for a door-to-door that could go sour in any number of ways, even if she's doing it a couple of times a night. Did your husband let her in? A common scam is to get invited inside on a pretense like that and then grab easily accessible small items while the owner's back is turned.

(And I'd like to meet the locksmith that will do anything more involved than cut you a key for $20.)

As far as condescension, don't worry too much about the folks giving you attitude. Grifters *love* people who think they're too smart to get conned and for $20, you got off cheap.

[cosinezero.livejournal.com]

Not to mention that any idiot knows no locksmith works for a mere $20.

And if they can call a locksmith, why can't they call a friend to help them out?

[turil.livejournal.com]

Yep, only idiots would know this. Since intelligent people don't lock themselves out of their own homes.

Heh.

[sheerchaos.livejournal.com]

yeah, $20 does sound cheap to me.

On the other hand, I did lock myself out once. The locksmith sent me a bill. Why do people always think the worst of locksmiths?

On the gripping hand, Im a fool for redheads, so perhaps would have done the same thing.

[frederic.livejournal.com]

Not to mention that locksmiths often take checks and credit cards these days which isn't too much of a risk for them since they know where you live and what key gets into your place...

[ah42.livejournal.com]

Hahah, moties!

[hauntmeister.livejournal.com]

Oh, yeah. She came by here about six months ago. She called herself "Jean" that time. When I pressed her for her last name, she came up with "Kelly". "Jean Kelly." I guess her parents liked musicals.

I told her that locksmiths cost about $100, and that they will wait until you get inside the apartment to get payment. I also offered to call the police for her, but she decided to take care of the problem somewhere else.

[ron_newman]

I'm on the unionsquare@yahoogroups.com mailing list, and I just got a message from another resident who was victimized by the same woman with the same story, near City Hall. It happened last Saturday night around 11:30 pm. When she reported it to the police, they told her that the same thing had happened to someone else at 10:00 the same night, around Morrison Avenue.

I don't know if I should repost her message here or not.

[mrmiasma.livejournal.com]

I was a victim of this as well last night. She came around my way about 9PM. She gave me the same story, but mentioned that she needed $65 for the locksmith (she even quoted me a locksmith name) and that she only had $45 thus far. She said she was actually one of my neighbors a named a number and street of the apartment which was right around the block from me. At first I asked if I could ask a rude question, which was for her to show me the $45 first. She said she left it at her girlfriends place on Summer St which is where she called the locksmith from. She said she'd go and run back to her girlfriends place to show me the money before I gave the $20 to her. I figured this was enough legitamcy and figured I'd just give her the $20. If I got scammed, I got scammed.

Looks like I got scammed.

Looks like I wasn't the only one.

I still end up giving people the benefit of the doubt.

[nowalmart.livejournal.com]

I would just like to point out, as someone else said in a response, that any locksmith will not demand payment until after their services have been rendered. As with almost any business, they will also accept personal checks.

(I realize there are about a million other frauds out there, but if everyone who reads this learns something, the world will be a little smarter as a result).

[ron_newman]

I sent e-mail to both Somerville newspapers, pointing them at this page. Let's see if that generates a news story.

[clevernonsense.livejournal.com]

hi, I'm a bit late. This once happened to me for $5, so I didn't really care (I figured it was a scam and it was a bit of a pathetic old man).

The flat tire/commuter rail story is also an old one. Sometimes I'll give a dollar to a scruffy hippie at a bus station because I won't really miss it.

However, the best suggestion I can give is to ask for some sort of collateral--a driver's license with photo or CC..., apologize even for asking but explain the frauds that have been happening in the neighborhood (I sometimes worry about that 1% or fewer that are legitimately in need).

My favorite was the guy asking for commuter fare money home "just got out of work and I only need $5--my wallet was stolen" - I came really close to asking if that was 10 or 20 dollars worth of beer I smelled on his breath :)