# How does the steak truck scam work? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 16, 2013, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-the-steak-truck-scam-work/663623 "2013-07-16T01:21:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![lost4life](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c4cdca/32.png) [@lost4life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lost4life)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2013, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-the-steak-truck-scam-work/663623/41 "2013-07-16T20:04:09Z")
I had a guy come to my door and start rattling off some spiel about heading back to the warehouse and having too much to unload and he’s discounting it so he doesn’t have to deal with it. After he finally finishes, he hands me a pamphlet with pictures of meat, and there’s a long pause. Eventually I go “you sell meat…from a truck?..who the fuck buys meat from a truck?” He snatched the pamphlet from me and walked away. A friend had a cousin who attempted this. To help him out he bought like 10 or 20 pounds of steaks, knowing they would probably be really poor quality. He had a bunch of people over, cooked them up, and wound up throwing the whole lot out…and I once saw this guy eat a scented candle. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2013, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-the-steak-truck-scam-work/663623/42 "2013-07-16T20:11:31Z")
> [@bob\_2](#): > > They showed this scam on a TV programme over here. They rented a small refrigerated truck and stuck some magnetic signs on the sides to make it look authentic. > > They parked in a residential Street and knocked on people’s doors carrying one of those polystyrene insulating boxes they use in the trade. Inside the box were genuine prime cuts of meat, and they explained that he’d had a delivery refused, but they had to go and make a collection so the truck needed to be empty. > > The householders looked closely and suspiciously at the meat in the box, and then, when they heard the price, felt themselves unable to refuse. The guy then took the sample box back to the truck and returned with an identical sealed one. By the time the householders discovered what They’d bought, the truck was long gone. > > They actually did this for the TV programme, and convinced at least for householders to by the rubbish meat. none of the householders said that they would have reported it to the police because they felt too embarrassed at being caught out. That is how you run the meat scam. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2013, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-the-steak-truck-scam-work/663623/43 "2013-07-16T20:25:55Z")
> [@Jackknifed\_Juggernaut](#): > > I’m frankly shocked that anyone would buy any meat from some dude in a truck, and then actually eat it. You’d be even more flabbergasted that people buy shrimp out of the back of a truck. In Houston. :eek: ---
**Author:** ![glennwith2ns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/43a26b/32.png) [@glennwith2ns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glennwith2ns)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2013, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-the-steak-truck-scam-work/663623/44 "2013-07-16T22:31:58Z")
Ahh, the meat truck, Was painting the front of my house one day when I looked back and saw this meat truck stop and the guy came running over towards me. But before he could say anything, I said I’m not interested in any leftover meat! The poor guy just slumped his shoulders ,turned around and walked back to his truck without saying a word. Made my day!🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2013, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-the-steak-truck-scam-work/663623/45 "2013-07-16T23:09:59Z")
Plus, even if they tell you the truth, they’re not necessarily telling you what you think they are. Like, say, the guy tells you he’s got ten pounds of filet. OK, sure, he probably does have ten pounds of cuts. But which cuts? He didn’t say. It’s not his fault if, when he said filet, you assumed mignon. ---
**Author:** ![drachillix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/48db29/32.png) [@drachillix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drachillix)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2013, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-the-steak-truck-scam-work/663623/46 "2013-07-16T23:23:59Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Plus, even if they tell you the truth, they’re not necessarily telling you what you think they are. Like, say, the guy tells you he’s got ten pounds of filet. OK, sure, he probably does have ten pounds of cuts. But which cuts? He didn’t say. It’s not his fault if, when he said filet, you assumed mignon. Kinda like my old high school buddies favorite pickup line. “Wanna Go for a ride in my vette?” It was a chevette, not a corvette… ---
**Author:** ![iamthewalrus\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/258eb7/32.png) [@iamthewalrus\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamthewalrus_3)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2013, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-the-steak-truck-scam-work/663623/47 "2013-07-16T23:54:40Z")
> [@drew870mitchell](#): > > Why are all the door-to-door sales so shitty? If they were selling _good_ products, they wouldn’t need to sell that way. ---
**Author:** ![Chessic\_Sense](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7c8e57/32.png) [@Chessic\_Sense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chessic_Sense)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2013, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-the-steak-truck-scam-work/663623/48 "2013-07-17T01:36:10Z")
I actually bought one of these steak boxes once from two dudes in a bar. I was half buying for the meat and half buying to figure out what the scam was. They showed me the meat before I bought it. It seemed like regular steak, long but a little thin, and the price was, like, $10 for 16 steaks. I bought 'em. I cooked 'em. I ate 'em. They were tough but juicy. They seemed all right to me, and for $10, how much could I _possibly_ have been up-charged? I have yet to figure out what the scam was. If anything, I think the guys in the truck were getting scammed MLM-style. ---
**Author:** ![Rucksinator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/898d66/32.png) [@Rucksinator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rucksinator)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2013, 5:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-the-steak-truck-scam-work/663623/49 "2013-07-17T05:20:15Z")
> [@CookingWithGas](#): > > Here is [a thread I started with a similar experience with 63 posts](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=633909) in response. You might find it helpful. I don’t remember exactly what my search criteria was, but I think it was “meat truck scam”, and there were no results. But I did do a search first. ---
**Author:** ![russian\_heel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f05b48/32.png) [@russian\_heel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/russian_heel)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2013, 5:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-the-steak-truck-scam-work/663623/50 "2013-07-17T05:32:14Z")
I must look like a mark because Ive been approached by the speaker guys at least 5 times. They are very aggressive and may even mock you when you tell them to go away. It’s one of those jobs where you wonder why they can’t put their energies into a real sales job that would probably make them more money! ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2013, 8:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-the-steak-truck-scam-work/663623/51 "2013-07-17T08:42:27Z")
Carefully trimmed and packaged rib eye (eye of round) can be made to look like fillet steak, at least for long enough to get someone to buy it. Time pressure is one of the key tools of the scammer - because it puts the victim off balance and at a disadvantage. If you have ample time to consider, you can determine that the thing you’re being sold is any of : Not actually a bargain (i.e. priced above market) Stolen, or lacking provenance Counterfeit Switched for a different item as you commit to buy. On the flipside, there just aren’t many \*genuine \*reasons why someone selling you something couldn’t allow you time to consider. That’s why, as a general rule, if someone is selling you something and telling you that you must act right now, you should back out - if it’s a rush, something is wrong. ---
**Author:** ![bob\_2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_2/32/3341_2.png) [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2013, 9:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-the-steak-truck-scam-work/663623/52 "2013-07-17T09:23:18Z")
Actually a common factor in almost all sales scams, is to at least hint that the goods ‘fell off the back of a lorry’ or are in some other way not quite legal. Everyone likes a bargain, and most of us don’t mind being just a little dishonest to get one. I remember a colleague who was complaining bitterly that some scrote had nicked his car radio. What did he do? - he bought a replacement from a guy he met in the pub On the general subject of scams, that TV program also showed a neat one where they sold some Japanese Yen to a guy at a reduced rate. It was done in the evening and the story was that the seller needed to get it changed urgently for some reason and couldn’t wait until the next day. The buyer was shown a foreign exchange website with was was supposed to be the current rate, but was, of course, fake. He handed over a couple of hundred pounds (from an ATM) for the yen, on the basis that next day he could exchange them back and make a 30% profit. Of course he was shocked when he tried. They picked Yen, because he was unlikely to know the exchange rate without checking. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2013, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-the-steak-truck-scam-work/663623/53 "2013-07-17T15:05:24Z")
> [@bob\_2](#): > > Actually a common factor in almost all sales scams, is to at least hint that the goods ‘fell off the back of a lorry’ or are in some other way not quite legal. Everyone likes a bargain, and most of us don’t mind being just a little dishonest to get one. This is why you can’t get much money for the products you’re selling. People don’t buy something the ‘fell off the back of back of a truck’ for a 10% discount. You can’t get more than half the perceived value. And since any meat that wouldn’t be recognizable as crap is going to cost too much to make this worth while. If scammers were hard working entreprenerial types they’d do something legitmate. They run scams because their investment is very low, zero, or a negative amount, and their return is almost almost or completely profit. In the mind of the scammer a 90% return on a $100 item is a better deal than a 10% return on a $1000 item. It’s just part of the mindset. Now there may be a low quality meat scam going on. It’s just not the guys in the truck, it’s the butcher who convinced them that if they bought a few hundred dollars worth of low quality meat they could sell it in a parking lot for $1000. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2013, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-the-steak-truck-scam-work/663623/54 "2013-07-17T15:17:28Z")
> [@russian\_heel](#): > > It’s one of those jobs where you wonder why they can’t put their energies into a real sales job that would probably make them more money! Some of them do. I’ve had people trying to sell me kitchen refits or double glazed windows using very similar tactics - rush the customer to sign, do anything necessary to prevent them from shopping around, stepping back and making a cool-headed decision, or independently validating the claims being made. In the case of legitimate companies though, this doesn’t always work, as the customer has a cooling off period in which they can still cancel the contract (some of course don’t bother, no matter how crappy a deal they were forced into). Few things ever require a binding decision so urgently - it’s nearly always a danger sign. ---
**Author:** ![AaronX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/7bcc69/32.png) [@AaronX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AaronX)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2013, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-the-steak-truck-scam-work/663623/55 "2013-07-18T02:48:22Z")
Any chance they were selling scraps stuck together with meat glue? [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/hXXrB3rz-xU/hqdefault.jpg "Meat Glue Secret") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hXXrB3rz-xU) > **[Transglutaminase](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transglutaminase)** > > Transglutaminases are enzymes that in nature primarily catalyze the formation of an isopeptide bond between γ-carboxamide groups ( -(C=O)NH2 ) of glutamine residue side chains and the ε-amino groups ( -NH2 ) of lysine residue side chains with subsequent release of ammonia ( NH3 ). Lysine and glutamine residues must be bound to a peptide or a protein so that this cross-linking (between separate molecules) or intramolecular (within the same molecule) reaction can happen. Bonds formed by transglu ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2013, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-the-steak-truck-scam-work/663623/56 "2013-07-18T02:58:45Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > Carefully trimmed and packaged rib eye (eye of round) can be made to look like fillet steak, at least for long enough to get someone to buy it. I’m glad you put “eye of round” in parenthesis, as I would have been confused otherwise. A good ribeye here in the US costs about as much as a filet and doesn’t look anything like one (and I personally would prefer ribeye to filet in most cases.) But, yes, eye of round can look quite a bit like filet. I bought some bacon wrapped filets at Aldi once, wondering why in the hell they were so cheap, when I realized after cooking them they must have been eye of round, given their toughness. Nowhere on the package did it say tenderloin or filet mignon or anything like that–it just looked like a bacon-wrapped tenderloin. ---
**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2013, 5:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-the-steak-truck-scam-work/663623/57 "2013-07-18T05:49:41Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > The way the scam was originally supposed to work is that the victim would assume that the merchandise was really a good brand, but stolen, and that that accounted for the price. . Yes, that’s the most common sale scam. You always can rely on people’s lack of values. However, I doubt it applies to meat. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2013, 6:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-the-steak-truck-scam-work/663623/58 "2013-07-18T06:59:32Z")
I figure one good test would be to take a picture of their license plate, and see if they hightail it out of there. I suspect at the least they don’t have a license to sell. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2013, 7:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-the-steak-truck-scam-work/663623/59 "2013-07-18T07:58:41Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > I’m glad you put “eye of round” in parenthesis, as I would have been confused otherwise. A good ribeye here in the US costs about as much as a filet and doesn’t look anything like one (and I personally would prefer ribeye to filet in most cases.) Sorry - I just got that bit wrong. I should have said Silverside/Eye of round. > [@](#): > > But, yes, eye of round can look quite a bit like filet. I bought some bacon wrapped filets at Aldi once, wondering why in the hell they were so cheap, when I realized after cooking them they must have been eye of round, given their toughness. Nowhere on the package did it say tenderloin or filet mignon or anything like that–it just looked like a bacon-wrapped tenderloin. Here in the UK, ternderloin/filet is just called ‘fillet steak’ - I was recently sold a ‘whole fillet’ from a local international food store - it had been scrupulously trimmed and wrapped tight so as to resemble the expensive cut, but was in fact silverside/round - it would have been a bargain price for fillet, but was expensive for silverside. It was nice enough, braised with onions and red wine, but the steak I cut and experimentally fried to rare was like a hockey puck. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2013, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-the-steak-truck-scam-work/663623/60 "2013-07-18T15:07:03Z")
Yeah, I’m not entirely sure what labeling laws are in terms of referring to something as “filet” (which we pronounce “fillay”) in the US are. I’ve seen meat packaged as [“filet of top sirloin”](http://www.stockyards.com/product/Filet-of-Top-Sirloin). Typically, though, I think most people would assume “filet” on its own is short for filet mignon (although the definition of filet mignon in the US can be a bit more expansive, including tourenados and chateuabriand. In other words, pretty much any part of the tenderloin, not just the small end.) [Here’s the beef filet](http://www.illeatyou.com/2011/05/adventures-in-suspiciously-cheap-meat.html) I found. Now that I look at it again, it doesn’t really look quite like eye of round either. Maybe it really is filet, just from older cattle or something? I have no idea. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-the-steak-truck-scam-work/663623.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-the-steak-truck-scam-work/663623.md?page=4)