[Yieldway17]

This is an age old scam I have encountered in couple cities in India and surprisingly by a fellow Indian in the US as well over the years.

Regarding the later incident, I was approached by a well clothed old age Indian gentleman in a bus terminal in New York asking for money to get back to his son’s home in Boston. I suggested buying him a bus ticket to Boston as we were in a bus terminal but he said he will rather take a train for some bullshit reason. I called him out on his scam and moved on.

[invidious]

I had quite a contrary experience. I was playing tennis during the summer on my campus in the US when a guy drove in a car and approached us. It was summer so security was lax, Uni was shut and we were the only people on one of the courts. He asked for money for petrol because he had his wallet stolen nearby. I offered to accompany his to the petrol pump and fill his tank with petrol worth $15. He took my number, name and address and returned next day and offered me $100 for helping him. Of course I politely refused and took the $15.

[COMMUTER]

I have a few self taught guidelines for being a good samaritan.

- I must have frequented the area often enough.
- I must never stop right away. This means I have to pass the site of the incident slowly and be able to observe the scene. If it is chaotic then it not my time to shine.
- I must be able to have a good view of the scene. I must be able to observe some real need like kids or elderly there. If its just a bunch of college kids, the it not worth risking enough and expose myself and my family to the situation.

That said, I can cite a single incident I when I pulled over when travelling with my wife and kid to help a stranded family. I saw a man standing with his ~10yo daughter on the side of an expressway next to a 30 year old vehicle. Did I jump out instantly? No.

I passed him the first time. I knew that there were breaks in the median bracketing that stretch of the road hence I can take an U turn and reach the scene again in reasonable time.

I blazed my beams and passed him again on the opposite side. I took another Uturn and I appraoched him slowly I could clearly observe that they are a stranded marriage party of a middle aged couple accompanied by their kids along with one male relative and an elderly person. My approach with 600 watts of light made them nervous.

I passed them slowly this time and pulled over some 20 meters ahead of them. I waited dor them to approach me. The man came and said that he had had a flat tire and his spare tire had been left deflated. I offered my foot pump and they were on their way again.

Yes, it is not advisable to try to help everyone every time.

[autohead666]

I have noticed one more pattern of conning people in Bangalore:
One man in his mid 40s along with a child approaches you,and asks you whether you speak Hindi (they try to figure out whether you are a South Indian or belong to some other parts of the country from your appearance).If you reply Yes they start narrating their sorrow (usually the child needs immediate medical treatment and they have no money) or their wallet is stolen . I have come across such situations at-least 7-8 times in different parts of Bangalore , I simply reply No and walk away .

[nitinmurali]

Two weeks back, I was walking in a street in Al-Khwair, muscat when suddenly, a man in his early 30's who was traveling in his Pajero stopped near me and called me mildly towards his car. The time was around 10 pm and the street was busy. He greeted me and said he was coming from Salalah (some 10000 kilometres away). He showed me his fuel indicator which was near empty. Initially spoke in broken English, then started in Hindi after he came to know that I am an Indian. He said he is originally from Punjab needed some money for his family for dinner and some for fuel. He spoke to me in a very gentle tone. I could see a lady in her hijab in his car, and his car full of goods. This was during the holy month of Ramadan, and immediately after a deluge in some parts of Oman. So I thought he must have lost everything in the floods and I offered to buy some for the family in a small restaurant nearby. He said he will buy some parathas nearby. I gave him 3 Omani Riyals (₹550). He requested me for atleast 5, and I declined. During th conversation he was quite sober and repeatedly indicated that he was very shameful to ask me the money.
The very next day I told my friend who has been working in Muscat for some years, the story. He told he had a similar incident, 2 years back, and he too was scammed. Another friend of mine too had a similar experience. These people have a special knack in finding out the tourists and newer people and they target them, it seems.

[mohansrides]

Originally Posted by LazyGunner

Wow!! I thought only I was paranoid about having apartment/office sticker on my motorcycles and car. Really glad to see I'm not alone and special thanks to speedmiester for opening this thread. Now I have something to shove in the face of people who argue that apartment/office stiker is mandatory....

Actually, there is one more element of risk that no one has talked about. Aside from the stickers on a car, there is the number plate aspect to worry about too. Anyone can use the Vahan SMS service to check who a vehicle is registered to. All they have to do is text the vehicle's registration to a designated number and they will get a whole host of information returned via SMS; including if the car is in first or second or third ownership (which could be an allusion to how much disposable income the driver possesses). So, a potential conman knows the name of the owner who is also probably the driver; where that person lives and works (assuming that the car has both housing society and office stickers). On top of this, if the car has other stickers like that of the gym or other social gathering spots, the conman has a whole new stream of information to consume. Combine this with FB, Linkedin and other social media platforms, and mischief makers have a treasure trove to work with. They can get details like the number of family members, children's places of visit, and what not!!

On my FB, I have no mention of any relationships. I also have no pictures of anyone other myself. Even this, I am thinking about ditching and going black. Incidentally, I have also seriously thought about deleting my Linkedin account. That is one platform that I am yet to see any value from. I have kept it because having a presence on Linkedin seems to be like having at least one good set of formal clothes (you never use them; But, you don't know when you will need them). Everyone raves about Linkedin's power as platform to generate professional opportunities. Frankly, I have scored ZERO opportunities off of it. In the mean time, I am exposing my entire work life through it.

[whitebeauty]

Originally Posted by speedmiester

I try to reduce any sort of identification stickers which might help such conmen, but apartment sticker is mandatory in cars

I would suggest not to put any stickers on windshield instead keep it inside your car and show to the security guys in office or apartment as on when needed. this ll avoid anyone knowing where we are staying or working.

[superbad]

There's no end to the creativity & enterprise of these scammers. If they channelise even 10% of that positively, they would make a decent living.

[alisajid]

I don't know if this would be taken positively. I was in school and went to visit Agra with neighbour friends. We were supposed to board the Hyderabad bound express from Agra Station. The train was at the station and one of my neighbour who was with us asked me to get a pack of ciggrattes from outside as he had forgotten to purchase it.

By the time I got it, train had left, I actually had just a few bucks in my pocket and my baggage went with the train. I was in 9th standard then, unfortunately they dint pull the chain and carried on with the journey. I went to station office they said board the next train u might join it, I went there and dint actually had money for return fare. I spent whole night near station sitting alone, I was just a kid.

One person came upto me and asked me about my situation.That man smilingly gave me rs 250 and asked me to return it once I got back home. I called back home saying I'll be late and eventually was back home. This happened in 1996.I returned back his money and still simply send money to his address even today.

I experienced that desperation, trust me guys its the worst thing that could ever happen to anyone in a strange city and out of money.

I would still give money maybe less but still will give to any stranger saying iam new to the city and out of money. I don't want to loose the habit of giving just because of few liars.

[amiya.c]

The guy in the photo shared by speedmiester is the one. I had the same incident and he was wearing the uniform of the Facility Personnel in my office. He saw my office's sticker on my car's windshield and started his story about how many people he knows in my office, employee id, etc. He gave the same reason that the traffic police has confiscated his Van and he needs to be dropped near an ATM. After getting into the car he just realized that he has lost the wallet too and requested me to help him with some cash
This guy is a little over 6 feet and heavy built. I think one can reach out to the police with these photos and get him behind the bars. This is a new nuisance in the city.

[Nibir Mudai]

Originally Posted by speedmiester

I am sharing the screenshot here, but no video as it doesn't make any sense to share the video with the audio removed.

I can confirm now. He is exactly the same person I had an encounter with

I think, he is operating from different places in Bengaluru. Beware!

[mohansrides]

Originally Posted by invidious

I had quite a contrary experience. I was playing tennis during the summer on my campus in the US when a guy drove in a car and approached us. It was summer so security was lax, Uni was shut and we were the only people on one of the courts. He asked for money for petrol because he had his wallet stolen nearby. I offered to accompany his to the petrol pump and fill his tank with petrol worth $15. He took my number, name and address and returned next day and offered me $100 for helping him. Of course I politely refused and took the $15.

Your words made me think about this situation a bit differently. Thanks for doing that. Going against the grain I mean. Anyways, I started thinking about the situation where the roles were flipped. What if we are the ones asking for help? Turns out that I needn't have stretched my imagination. In fact, I have found myself in that role-reversed circumstance many many times. Here is my account of it.

https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/stree...xperience.html (Asking strangers for help - what's your experience?)

In a nutshell, it is possible for someone to have a diametrically opposite experience; more so in societies with lesser economic inequities, like say the US as you rightly pointed out. Granted that crowded cities like NYC, LAX or SFO would probably have plenty of cons working the street. But, other parts of the US that are less dense are far less prone to such incidents, I think.

Anyways, would love to hear your thoughts as you too are, or have been, a student there it looks like.

Cheers

[mohansrides]

Originally Posted by alisajid

I don't know if this would be taken positively. I was in school and went to visit Agra with neighbour friends. We were supposed to board the Hyderabad bound express from Agra Station. The train was at the station and one of my neighbour who was with us asked me to get a pack of ciggrattes from outside as he had forgotten to purchase it.

By the time I got it, train had left, I actually had just a few bucks in my pocket and my baggage went with the train. I was in 9th standard then, unfortunately they dint pull the chain and carried on with the journey. I went to station office they said board the next train u might join it, I went there and dint actually had money for return fare. I spent whole night near station sitting alone, I was just a kid.

One person came upto me and asked me about my situation.That man smilingly gave me rs 250 and asked me to return it once I got back home. I called back home saying I'll be late and eventually was back home. This happened in 1996.I returned back his money and still simply send money to his address even today.

I experienced that desperation, trust me guys its the worst thing that could ever happen to anyone in a strange city and out of money.

I would still give money maybe less but still will give to any stranger saying iam new to the city and out of money. I don't want to loose the habit of giving just because of few liars.

Wait. Your group simply left you there and went their merry way? They could have come to fetch you, or at least left another guy with some money at the platform to accompany you on another train. I seriously hope that you quickly dropped out of the circle of these losers.

But, I understand what you are saying. I have been helped many times by perfect strangers. But, the point of this thread is that the requests for help come across as cons quite transparently. Let me explain by drawing a contrast between your actions and what everyone here has experienced at signals.

Once you found out that you were alone and without money, you went to the station office and explained your situation. The officials there spoke with you and could clearly see that you were not a con. Certainly, you didn't try to pan money off of random people by feeding them a story. That's the key difference.

In this thread, the people approaching drivers in cars had problems that could possibly be solved by walking into the nearest police station. In fact, if someone loses their wallet with the identification papers, they should absolutely go to the police station, and ONLY the police station. The fact that they aren't doing so is itself quite suspicious.

[swiftnfurious]

Bangalore is no more a city of garden and speedbreakers but also of conmen. It being the IT hub has been helping the cause quite a bit I assume. Its a general rule that most IT guys wouldnt put up a fight (including me) and crumble + language barriers are way too a common issue.

I used to stay @ Madiwala and used to walk down to BTM BP pump junction every weekend. I used to notice one young guy dressed so well on an RX100 (the bike was the reason I noticed him). He'll be seen sitting on the bike and trying to "row" it and ask for 50/- as he forgot the wallet and fuel is finished. The first time I told him I didnt have cash. Second time, I told him "you forgot the wallet last week too" and the guy just started his bike and rode away.

Honestly, I think asking for cash in the manner mentioned here is much better as they don't manhandle the people. And yes, surprising on the standard 300/- pitch. Not sure anyone has brought this to the notice of Bangalore police via FB or something, might help.

[JohnyBoy]

Originally Posted by alisajid

...
I experienced that desperation, trust me guys its the worst thing that could ever happen to anyone in a strange city and out of money.

I would still give money maybe less but still will give to any stranger saying iam new to the city and out of money. I don't want to loose the habit of giving just because of few liars.

നെല്ലിന് വെള്ളം ഒഴിക്കുമ്പോൾ കുറച്ചു പുല്ലിനും പോകും എന്ന് വച്ച് വെള്ളം ഒഴിക്കാതിരിക്കുമോ
This is a saying in Malayalam, roughly translated as When we water paddy, some water may go to weeds. It doesn't mean we stop watering.

Even if we can be of help to one genuine guy in real trouble, and got conned nine times, I think it is worth.