Now I know this is incredibly stupid and honestly I don’t even know what I was thinking in that moment. I was done grocery shopping when an English man approached me looking distressed. He was there with his kid and told me he had lost his ID and wallet and desperately needed to catch a train to Paris for a flight. Usually I’m not a person who gets caught up in such stories. This time however I decided I’d do the right thing and help someone in need. He told me he needed 300 in cash and I went to withdrawal. He obviously told me he would transfer the money right away and I watched him do that. I gave my bank details and phone number and he gave me his number and some generic British name. I truly don’t know what possessed me to do this. I’ve been studying 24/7 and honestly can’t seem to make rational decisions outside. I’ve been trying to tell myself that he will give me the money but it’s unlikely. I can’t believe I didn’t question him more. If he needed to catch a train why wouldn’t he purchase the ticket online? Why was he at a random grocery store and not near the train station? How would he travel without why form of ID? Why approach me with this?
Once I came home I thought more about it and called him. He told me it would come but afterwards I texted him and it was never delivered.
TLDR; TIFU by literally handing a stranger 300 bucks since he said he lost his wallet and ID and needed to catch a train asap.
Comments
Hi OP, My dog or something is sick or whatever, Anywho I need $20,000. If you can send it to my paypal I promise once hes better he will save up the money and pay you back.
This is an old trick, mostly done by “beggars” here in Finland. I lost X and need to get to train/flight/home.
Yes, you got played.
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Bet he can’t believe his luck. $300 off one mark.
Thats crazy i always wonder who falls for those tricks, there’s always the same lady at my train station asking me for a train ride home every week
Unfortunately pretty common city scam. Had that encounter in Seattle, guy said he had his backpack stolen, had this super in depth story to the point where he said he was a graphics artist and showed me his personal website and LinkedIn. I was happy to buy him a ticket home but didn’t have cash and didn’t want to give a stranger my credit card info. Straight up (genuinely) offered to walk with him to train station about 25 minutes away. I didn’t even suspect him of pulling a scam but he didn’t want to walk there which tipped me off that something was off and I left. If he was truly trying to get back, he would have had to go to the train station anyways.
AI. Whenever I get the train to Paris I always pay in $.
I need 300 dollars too, my entire family is going to die without it. I can DM you OP, maybe we can work out an IOU?
a man in sicily asked me for money to buy a train ticket last year. i offered to buy him the train ticket myself since we were near the station and suddenly he didn’t need the ticket anymore.
A brain cloud on your part, I suppose.
Could you give me your address, so I know where I can get 300$ by just pretending to be lost?
Just to add this man didn’t look like he was in financial struggle at all. He was wearing a polo shirt and a nice watch. I was just too dumb to realize that he was in fact a scammer
Karma will catch up with him someday. It’s hard to resist a scammer when he has his kid with him AND he’s got a cool British accent.
I was at a two week training course and one guy during the first week was at the crosswalk asking for money to fill his prescription for meds for his sick relative The next week, the same guy was at that same spot asking for money for his car that was towed.
I wouldn’t feel too bad about it, it is impossible to go your entire life and not get scanned a few times… Hell half of what legitimate companies do now days are scams to. We are sold the lie that we are supposed to be able to always protect ourselves but that’s really just so the governments and magistrates don’t have to do shit about it.
And like someone else said, maybe he was desperate and needed it. I work with severely mentally ill clients, a large portion of whom are homeless, and even with great relationships and rapport I have had clients steal my phone, a battery off an e-bike, and tried to find anything not bolted down in my company car to sell and get money. I knew who it was each time. I don’t get mad at them or call the police or anything like that, they need it more than I do and the next time I work with them I still treat them with positive regard… I might mess with them a little but even then I don’t always if they aren’t in a place for jokes or if it would cause fear for them.
The worst I was ever scammed was in China and it was thousands and I knew it was a scam at the time but literally couldn’t do anything about it and the woman doing it didn’t need the money and was supposed to be vetted… That one made me mad!
I still feel that I would rather be giving and helpful and get taken advantage of sometimes than always suspect everyone and be angry.
Fingers crossed you somehow get the money back through karmic channels!
It sucks how scammers prey on people’s good will like this when there are actual people in need all over the world.