possible scam?

[four-thorns.livejournal.com]

as i was walking home tonight (about 10pm-ish), i saw a woman leaving a house with a baby in a stroller. i had just turned the corner and was walking away when she caught up to me and said that she just moved into the neighborhood and that she had just brough her baby home from the hospital because he was sick with an earache, and that she needed to go pick up his prescription, and her mother told her to ask a neighbor for money for it, and she then asked me for $35 (i was just walking down the street, there was nothing to identify me as a "neighbor"). i couldn't have helped her out even if i had wanted to, because i didn't have that much money on me, but i suspected it was a scam, too. as i walked away, i heard her approaching a man who was just coming out of his house with the same story.

if your baby had an earache, you wouldn't be wheeling him/her around the streets in a stroller after 10pm at night, would you? especially if your mother is around?

i dunno. just thought i'd let people know in case it is a scam. this was on highland a few blocks past the somerville hospital.

Comments

[hauntmeister.livejournal.com]

Probably the same woman who came to my door last summer, claiming to have just moved in. The scam that time was that she was locked out of her apartment, and needed $35 for a locksmith to let her in.

There was a thread about it here at the time, I think....

[ron_newman]

This one?

(I found it by searching the community for "locksmith". Then I tagged it with "crime".)

[hauntmeister.livejournal.com]

Thanks, that's the one!

[georgy.livejournal.com]

What is it with the $35 amount? Odd.

[talonvaki.livejournal.com]

It's the most cash you can get from CVS...apart from that, I've got nothing.

[julishka.livejournal.com]

it's an amount you can't get out of an atm, so if you needed to get cash then you'd probably, if you fell for the scam, give the person $40 instead.

the downtown version of the scam is: i just got my car towed with my wallet in it and am trying to "borrow enough money to take a cab to the tow lot." the same guy approached me on three different days, a few years ago. finally the last time he did, i pointed out to him that his car has been towed three days in a row and maybe he should just take the bus into the city from now on. he scowled and walked away. i shrugged and walked on.