In any sense of the word. Did you send money to a Nigerian? Invest money with a friend of a friend? Tell me and make me feel better, in case it is happening to me as well. Tell me it can happen to the smartest among us.
I’m going to Paris shortly to do research for about a month. I spent about a month looking for budget accommodation, and finally found a tiny apartment advertised on Craigslist (I KNOW!! :eek:) that was exactly what I was looking for, and was available. I was naturally cynical to begin with, as it’s Craigslist, and the owner seemed so happy to rent it for exactly the time I wanted that I my skepticism increased - everywhere else I tried, from hostels to student residence halls to vacation apartments, were full, didn’t want long-term guests, didn’t want short-term, so on and so forth.
I put my father onto it, as he’s the most suspicious person I know and we decided that it seemed all right and since the guy only wanted a 100 euro deposit, I might as well pay it because that’s small change compared to what I might have to spend if I couldn’t find anything cheap.
We’ve since done some detective work, and I’m a bit relieved that the Yellow Pages of Paris list a person by that name at that address. But I’m still worried about sending money via PayPal to Boston for an apartment in Paris.
But I’m still taking the address of a nearby hostel with me, in case I get there and there’s no apartment.
So, please tell me either that it’s not a scam, or that I’m not an idiot even if it is.
Ha! I was approached for that one (coincidentally, not 50 feet away from the spot of the oregano incident). I laughed and explained that they had really lousy timing – I had just read up on their scam the night before. They acted righteously indignant that I was insinuating they might be less than on the level.
Visiting London. My hotel was just down the street from the Bond Street Underground station.
First day there, I head into the Tube and see a girl looking forlorn and scared. She approaches me timidly and tells of how she’s been stranded in London by a boyfriend that abandoned her and left her with no way to get home to Cambridge. She’s short 15 pounds, but, really, anything I can do to help…
So I figure I’ll make her day. Fifteen pounds was at the time about $23, but I figure it’s my good deed for the week. She’s so happy, so effusive, thanking me and wanting to get my address so she can mail it back. I tell her not to worry about it; I’m a tourist and it wouldn’t make sense to send $23 overseas.
While I was out and about I got a long overdue haircut, but I don’t think it changed my appearance all that much. No, the truth was that little bitch didn’t have the decency to remember me from ONE DAY AGO. Yes, she was right there the next day, trying the exact same pitch on someone else as I came up, and when he (wise man!) hurried past without stopping, turned her attention to me and started in on the same tale again.
What burned me wasn’t falling for the scam. It was being so completely unmemorable that she tried the same scam again the very next day.
I get them from Craigslist all the time. They say they want to contract me, but it’s so obvious by the grammatical and punctuation errors in the email that I just try to make them believe I’m gullible and interested and lead them on. Eventually they want me to send them them a Moneygram.
BTW: Could anyone tell me the format for Moneygram ID numbers? I’d like to make them go to Western Union with a bad number and piss them off.
I got caught once by an Algerian fast-change artist in Nice (France) - it started off as a story about needing change, but ended up being more like a mugging - he was big and muscular and there was nobody else around - I knew he was scamming me and he knew I knew - but parting with a bit of cash looked like the safest way out.
Aww. That makes me sad, because if she had been genuine, it would have been one of those “kindness of strangers” thread stories. Those people blow it for everyone else.
I also found a Nigerian scammer listing an “apartment” in Paris! I was hugely skeptical, because two-bedrooms just don’t go for that little, but because I’m morbidly fascinated I sent an email. I got the whole thing - a family history and a plea for a Moneygram at which time I would get a key in the mail and would hopefully become one of the family. Heh.
Oh yeah! I just remembered someone else I know. A guy with whom I took a course in Germany a few years ago - very intelligent, student at an Ivy League school, etc. - he bet money on one of those “guess what box the coin is under” things. I think he lost about 50 euros.
Three years or so ago, I got a fake ten as change in a cab in Toronto. It looked real in the hurried environment of getting out of a cab in traffic; it even had the gold overprinting of maple leaves on it. Went to spend it a few minutes later–no go. Fortunately, I had enough change to get my pop and patty. When I got to work, the guy in the caf showed me how to tell a fake banknote: wet it. On fake ones, the ink runs.
(That issue of tens and fives became notorious for counterfeits and was rather quickly replaced by new banknotes with holograms.)
Seriously. I PMed this guy to help me convert some 45s to CDs. We agreed on a price, and I sent him the 45s and a money order for the work plus the return postage. That was June of 2007. I got a nasty email about how he broke a needle and needed more time in July 2007, and that was the last I heard of him. Sent PMs, got no response. Sent mail, no response. I don’t even care about the money. I want the 45s back. They belonged to my late aunt, and they were full of hawaiian music.
So, here on the board, **Ken Follett ** I’m calling you out! Get in touch with me or I reveal your user name.
Anybody can PM me to ask for info, I welcome all comers.
Seriously, that sucks. I assume he doesn’t still post here?
Okay, I feel better. I promise I will come back and share my story, including a funny description of roaming the streets of Paris with a giant suitcase, looking for accommodation, when I find that my apartment doesn’t exist.
Well, to put your mind at ease, my husband and I stay in apartments listed on Craigslist quite often.
Staying in one this week. For most we usually send either a small deposit or the entire cost of our stay via PayPal. We sent the entire fee this time around, and it’s an apartment we’ve never stayed in before.
You found the name and address in the phone book, why don’t you call them? It might be useful if there is a scam involving listing the apartment without the owners knowledge.
That is good to know, thanks! I’m a bit suspicious of why someone would use Craigslist in France and not a local newspaper, but I suppose if you’re an American (which he claims to be), targeting other English-speaking guests, it makes perfect sense.
The place is a very tiny room with basic cooking facilities, a little shower, and a shared toilet in the hall so it’s not really somewhere anyone would want to live long-term, and considering it’s on the very outskirts of the city, it’s not a prime location either so it’s not priced unreasonably low.
That’s actually… a good idea. I should just do that. I did call his office in Boston, because I figured if he picked up the phone I would know he wasn’t in Paris (the message said he was the president, but did not say he was in the office or would be at any time), but for some reason I never thought of calling his home. :smack:
I wanted to get a dog when I moved out to Colorado but I’m in the middle of no where so there are no breeders for dogs that I want inside a 6 hr drive. So I got on the net and found a good site for Black Russian Terriers. They had lots of pictures of previous litters and that kind of stuff. I then e-mail with the owner for about 3 months before I cut him a check for $200. After that I heard from him one more time and then the site hasn’t been updated since and I can’t get a reply from email or phone calls.
I went to the pound and got a great puppy so it worked out in the end I figure I have a $400 mutt.
I got scammed a few times by homeless people when I first opened a shelter. I was pretty street-wise but they came up with some good ones. My bleeding heart was getting in the way of my suspicious mind so I set it up so that people had to get their story past my ex-homeless and currently homeless staff before they got to try it out on me.
I paid two hundred pounds for a Bruce Springsteen ticket from a sell-back “marketplace”-type website. Two days before the concert, they sent me an email saying, “Sorry, we can’t provide this ticket after all!” and never refunded my money.
Oh! And a taxi driver gave me a 20 cent euro coin instead of a pound once when I was completely trashed. Felt I deserved that one, though, as I’d fallen asleep on the Tube and missed my stop.
Back in college I signed up for Rolling Stone with one of those door to door magazine salespeople. Never got the magazine. I don’t think it was really a scam, I think the guy just probably quit or forgot to hand in the order form. We spend a couple of hours hanging out as it was pouring rain so I invited him in for a couple of beers and to listen to music.
and we decided that it seemed all right and since the guy only wanted a 100 euro deposit, I might as well pay it because that’s small change compared to what I might have to spend if I couldn’t find anything cheap.