# I gave my credit card to my "best friend" **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [September 18, 2018, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-gave-my-credit-card-to-my-best-friend/821515 "2018-09-18T04:14:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2018, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-gave-my-credit-card-to-my-best-friend/821515/61 "2018-09-18T17:46:14Z")
Marcia, Marcia, Marcia. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2018, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-gave-my-credit-card-to-my-best-friend/821515/62 "2018-09-18T17:47:12Z")
Please BE WARNED! Over the last month I have become a victim of a clever ‘Eastern European’ scam whilst out shopping. Here’s how the scam works: Two very good-looking 20-21 year-old girls of eastern European origin come over to your car as you are packing your shopping into the trunk. They both start cleaning your windshiel, their breasts almost falling out of their skimpy T- shirts. When you thank them and offer them a tip, they’ll say ‘No’ and instead they ask you for a lift to another supermarket. You agree and they both get in the back seat. On the way there, they start undressing, until both are completely naked. Then, when you pull over to remonstrate, one of them climbs over into the front seat and starts crawling all over your lap, kissing you, touching you intimately and thrusting herself against you, while the other one steals your wallet! I had my wallet stolen on September 4th, 9th,10th, twice on the 15th, 17th, 20th, 24th and 29th. Also on October 1st, 4th, 6th, 9th and 10th and twice yesterday.So please warn all the older men you know to be on the lookout for this scam. The best times seem to be just before lunch and about 4:30 in the afternoon ---
**Author:** ![TroutMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troutman/32/6721_2.png) [@TroutMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TroutMan)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2018, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-gave-my-credit-card-to-my-best-friend/821515/63 "2018-09-18T18:16:28Z")
I don’t want to alarm anyone, but I fear this debit-card-borrowing-friend-who-needs-medication scam might be an epidemic. From the [Forest Grove (OR) police blotter](https://www.oregonlive.com/forest-grove/index.ssf/2018/09/malt_liquor_traded_for_grilled.html) on September 4: > [@](#): > > A woman called police after a friend she loaned her debit card to went on a large spending spree, rather than purchase needed medications as originally discussed. Officers are investigating. Maybe you should try dating this woman instead of your “friend”, OP. You two probably have a lot in common. ---
**Author:** ![Spiderman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spiderman/32/230_2.png) [@Spiderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiderman)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2018, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-gave-my-credit-card-to-my-best-friend/821515/64 "2018-09-18T18:22:01Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > Please BE WARNED! Over the last month I have become a victim of a clever ‘Eastern European’ scam whilst out shopping. > > Here’s how the scam works: > > Two very good-looking 20-21 year-old girls of eastern European origin come over to your car as you are packing your shopping into the trunk. They both start cleaning your windshiel, their breasts almost falling out of their skimpy T- shirts. When you thank them and offer them a tip, they’ll say ‘No’ and instead they ask you for a lift to another supermarket. You agree and they both get in the back seat. > > On the way there, they start undressing, until both are completely naked. Then, when you pull over to remonstrate, one of them climbs over into the front seat and starts crawling all over your lap, kissing you, touching you intimately and thrusting herself against you, while the other one steals your wallet! > > I had my wallet stolen on September 4th, 9th,10th, twice on the 15th, 17th, 20th, 24th and 29th. Also on October 1st, 4th, 6th, 9th and 10th and twice yesterday.So please warn all the older men you know to be on the lookout for this scam. > > The best times seem to be just before lunch and about 4:30 in the afternoon Hmmm, many of those dates are in the future; may I suggest “accidentally” leaving your wallet at home one day so they can’t steal it. 😉 - Does the design on your [wallet](https://cdn8.bigcommerce.com/s-fnjr43x/images/stencil/1280x1280/products/1513/8855/Book-of-birds-wallet-purse-large__79255.1497463639.JPG?c=2&imbypass=on) match the sound made when something flys by your head? ---
**Author:** ![begbert2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/begbert2/32/3357_2.png) [@begbert2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/begbert2)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2018, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-gave-my-credit-card-to-my-best-friend/821515/65 "2018-09-18T18:48:47Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > I didn’t read the whole thread. Here is some advice from someone old enough to be your grandmother: > > If a friend needs money and you feel inclined to help them, for WHATEVER reason, just give them whatever amount you can afford to lose and call it a day. Don’t “loan” people money. If they want to repay the gift of cash later, fine and dandy. A “loan” will always be hanging in the air between you. > > At your age I didn’t have one dime of savings to my name, but now I’m financially okay. Not wealthy, not well-off, but _okay_. Recently a friend of mine (my age) was in a very bad spot after some surgeries and just a bunch of shit that all fell on her at once. She coudln’t pay her rent. She didn’t have any food in the house. I gave her $2,500, which is not nothing to me, but it isn’t an amount of money that will affect whether I have food or have to sleep in my car. She was immensely grateful and I may or may not ever see the money again, and that’s fine. I see her a lot, but the amount isn’t the elephant in the room with us. Her financial situation is still precarious. She’s getting ready to move into a retirement community and things may ease up, but I really don’t care if she ever pays back the money. In my mind it was a gift. > > The lesson: don’t loan friends (or anyone) money. Just give it to them and be done. If you truly feel you cannot permanently part with the money, then say you just can’t do it and you’re sorry–you’d help if you could. And then be done with that. I make it my personal policy to never lend anything, _ever_, that I couldn’t cheerfully never see again, be it a dollar or a DVD. However I do sometimes lend. I recently lent a friend who was under some stress $20,000, in fact - no interest, no time limit, no payments other than a full payback. I figure if the winds of fortune favor him _greatly_ I’ll get it back in maybe five or ten years, maybe. In the meantime I generally forget the loan even happened. The upsides of this over simply giving him the money is I’m pretty sure he wouldn’t have accepted it as a gift, and who knows, I might get a _hell_ of a pleasant surprise some distant day. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2018, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-gave-my-credit-card-to-my-best-friend/821515/66 "2018-09-18T18:55:53Z")
> [@begbert2](#): > > I make it my personal policy to never lend anything, _ever_, that I couldn’t cheerfully never see again, be it a dollar or a DVD. However I do sometimes lend. I recently lent a friend who was under some stress $20,000, in fact - no interest, no time limit, no payments other than a full payback. I figure if the winds of fortune favor him _greatly_ I’ll get it back in maybe five or ten years, maybe. In the meantime I generally forget the loan even happened. > > The upsides of this over simply giving him the money is I’m pretty sure he wouldn’t have accepted it as a gift, and who knows, I might get a _hell_ of a pleasant surprise some distant day. Actually I did this recently with another friend, only it was $10,000. I called it a loan, too, because this person never would have accepted it otherwise. I consider it a gift. I might get it back someday, but if I don’t, I won’t starve or wind up homeless. ---
**Author:** ![Lucas\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucas_jackson/32/303_2.png) [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2018, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-gave-my-credit-card-to-my-best-friend/821515/67 "2018-09-18T20:03:42Z")
> [@Ambivalid](#): > > Rub it in, dick. 😉 I started to go grey at 18 and I comforted myself by telling myself that my incredibly thick bushy hair, while greying, would never start falling out. Now I just stare at my head and weep. Weep for what is lost. And for losses yet to come. So now I’m 38 and balding on top with white all around the temples. Good thing I got this wheelchair to hide myself in. Otherwise I might become self-conscious. 😃 Yeah, but you got all those muss-culls! You should go all Dwayne Johnson: > **[Dwayne Johnson for President!](https://www.gq.com/story/dwayne-johnson-for-president-cover)** > > The Baywatch star has so much charisma and ambition he can do anything. Some people even say he could be president. So GQ's Caity Weaver spent a few days with The Rock, pumping iron and gulping water and figuring out if he's ready for higher office. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2018, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-gave-my-credit-card-to-my-best-friend/821515/68 "2018-09-18T20:28:49Z")
> [@Spiderman](#): > > Hmmm, many of those dates are in the future; may I suggest “accidentally” leaving your wallet at home one day so they can’t steal it. 😉 > > - Does the design on your [wallet](https://cdn8.bigcommerce.com/s-fnjr43x/images/stencil/1280x1280/products/1513/8855/Book-of-birds-wallet-purse-large__79255.1497463639.JPG?c=2&imbypass=on) match the sound made when something flys by your head? They were all last year. I ran out of wallets. (I considered changing the dates, but it was too much work for just a joke.) ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_McQwark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4da419/32.png) [@Steve\_McQwark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_McQwark)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2018, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-gave-my-credit-card-to-my-best-friend/821515/69 "2018-09-18T20:30:53Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > Actually I did this recently with another friend, only it was $10,000. I called it a loan, too, because this person never would have accepted it otherwise. I consider it a gift. I might get it back someday, but if I don’t, I won’t starve or wind up homeless. Twenty some years ago one of my cousins wanted to borrow some money to pay for her father-in-law’s funeral. I knew she was never going to pay me back, but I gave her the money. Five or six years later I was talking to her oldest son at a family get-together. He was 18 or 19 at the time and he told me that when he was five I had bet him one hundred dollars that he wouldn’t make it to 18. I think he was half-joking and half-fishing for some money. I told him to get it from his mother and she could subtract it from what she owed me. ---
**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:** [September 18, 2018, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-gave-my-credit-card-to-my-best-friend/821515/70 "2018-09-18T21:40:22Z")
> [@T-Minus](#): > > I am just going to ignore her and learn my life lesson. I am just grateful she didn’t take out every dime I had. > > It was a debt card with my pin. Grow a handlebar mustache, get a black day coat and top hat. Go over to her house, knock on her door. When she answers twirl your mustache and say “now about that money you owe my, my pretty…” An evil cackle might work here also. She’ll never bother you again. ---
**Author:** ![Ambivalid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a5b964/32.png) [@Ambivalid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ambivalid)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2018, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-gave-my-credit-card-to-my-best-friend/821515/71 "2018-09-19T00:15:30Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > Grow a handlebar mustache, get a black day coat and top hat. Go over to her house, knock on her door. When she answers twirl your mustache and say “now about that money you owe my, my pretty…” An evil cackle might work here also. > She’ll never bother you again. Just make sure it’s an actual top hat and not a fedora. ---
**Author:** ![Slash1972](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slash1972/32/6461_2.png) [@Slash1972](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slash1972)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2018, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-gave-my-credit-card-to-my-best-friend/821515/72 "2018-09-19T01:17:32Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > I was bored, and wanted to see if she really was going to blow me off. It went exactly as expected So, she did or didn’t blow you off for a six pack and a ride across town? Your post is ambiguous. ---
**Author:** ![Ambivalid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a5b964/32.png) [@Ambivalid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ambivalid)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2018, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-gave-my-credit-card-to-my-best-friend/821515/73 "2018-09-19T01:38:05Z")
> [@Slash1972](#): > > So, she did or didn’t blow you off for a six pack and a ride across town? Your post is ambiguous. Oh how deleting three little little letters can so drastically alter the landscape of this post. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2018, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-gave-my-credit-card-to-my-best-friend/821515/74 "2018-09-19T01:57:39Z")
> [@elbows](#): > > After an hour and a half of persuasion, you handed your credit card to a neighbour who have previously borrowed money from you and not repaid it? > > Because you liked her looks? > > You deserved the lecture, dude. Which left you lying down depressed for 7 hrs? > > And ‘WE decided…’, really? WE ? Way to shift your ownership in this. > > Seriously? > > Now I’m curious just how old/young you are too. (haven’t read the whole thread yet) One also wonders what the nature of that 90-minute persuasion was. ---
**Author:** ![T-Minus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c77e96/32.png) [@T-Minus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/T-Minus)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2018, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-gave-my-credit-card-to-my-best-friend/821515/75 "2018-09-19T02:31:31Z")
> [@Ambivalid](#): > > Just make sure it’s an actual top hat and not a fedora. I should dress as the monopoly guy on halloween. lol ---
**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:** [September 19, 2018, 5:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-gave-my-credit-card-to-my-best-friend/821515/76 "2018-09-19T05:36:13Z")
> [@T-Minus](#): > > I should dress as the monopoly guy on halloween. lol I was thinking more Snidely Whiplash. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2018, 5:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-gave-my-credit-card-to-my-best-friend/821515/77 "2018-09-19T05:58:04Z")
Just don’t tie her to the railroad tracks. LE frowns on that. ---
**Author:** ![snfaulkner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snfaulkner/32/433_2.png) [@snfaulkner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snfaulkner)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2018, 6:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-gave-my-credit-card-to-my-best-friend/821515/78 "2018-09-19T06:03:35Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > Please BE WARNED! Over the last month I have become a victim of a clever ‘Eastern European’ scam whilst out shopping. > > Here’s how the scam works: > > Two very good-looking 20-21 year-old girls of eastern European origin come over to your car as you are packing your shopping into the trunk. They both start cleaning your windshiel, their breasts almost falling out of their skimpy T- shirts. When you thank them and offer them a tip, they’ll say ‘No’ and instead they ask you for a lift to another supermarket. You agree and they both get in the back seat. > > On the way there, they start undressing, until both are completely naked. Then, when you pull over to remonstrate, one of them climbs over into the front seat and starts crawling all over your lap, kissing you, touching you intimately and thrusting herself against you, while the other one steals your wallet! > > I had my wallet stolen on September 4th, 9th,10th, twice on the 15th, 17th, 20th, 24th and 29th. Also on October 1st, 4th, 6th, 9th and 10th and twice yesterday.So please warn all the older men you know to be on the lookout for this scam. > > The best times seem to be just before lunch and about 4:30 in the afternoon Which grocery stores does this happen at? You know, s…so I can avoid them. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2018, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-gave-my-credit-card-to-my-best-friend/821515/79 "2018-09-19T15:47:06Z")
> [@Slash1972](#): > > So, she did or didn’t blow you off for a six pack and a ride across town? Your post is ambiguous. She promised to, and did not. My ambiguity was unintentional, as was my double ententre. It was merely an unfortunate coincidence of terminology of me describing that she blew off blowing me off. It was careless writing. ---
**Author:** ![Slash1972](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slash1972/32/6461_2.png) [@Slash1972](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slash1972)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2018, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-gave-my-credit-card-to-my-best-friend/821515/80 "2018-09-19T16:01:28Z")
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