MissPinkKatee really showed those mall guys.

if you're buying car insurance for a scam artist in a mall food court, then you desertve to be scammed.

On 14th and 1st, some guy stopped me once and told me he had just come up from Florida...blah blah blah he was looking for some shelter to stay in but he needed money...i gave him 2 bucks...and went on my way...i mean he had an interesting story so i figured why not...

6 months or a year later...same neighborhood, same guy stops me...gives me the same story...halfway into his story, i repeat it to him, and hes like "how do you know all this? you're freaking me out"...i gave him another 2 bucks, cuz it was just funny...

1. Riding over Manhattan Bridge on subway.
2. Guy carrying oriental rug between cars pretends to slip and fall.
3. People are scared for him.
4. He makes it into the car safely and suddenly realizes he's "lost his wallet" in the fall.
5. He starts asking for money.
6. He stops in front of me, stares me down, and says, "What are you laughing at, white boy? I got nothing now. You look like you got money, but I got nothing. You laughing at me?" Note how he plays to race and class at the same time.
7. He continues berating me in front of everyone assuming I'll pay him to go away, but I hold my ground. Of course, no one comes to my defense.

can't believe the broken bottle scam is still around! i think i paid a buck once in the late 70s to a guy who bumped into me and dropped and smashed his quart bottle of miller (this was before 40s... and enforced no-drinking laws). that was the last time i paid. since then i just laugh and keep walking, or forcefully say i'm not paying, or run, or run to a pay phone and dial 911, or dial 911 from the cellie (depending upon era and bigness of scammer).

Diapers and formula is a classic. I used to get harrassed by a guy who needed those "for his baby." Made me wonder by how much he was planning to mark them up when he got back to the hood to sell them to get the cash for his fix. What a world.

Got I hate cons, I've been hit up with implausible sob stories about 5 times since I've lived in New York. I like to say "gee, I'd like to help you, but I actually don't have any cash at all," as in, you want to lie to me, fine, I'll lie right back.

The most aggressive cons I've ever encountered were in Hartford, CT, and Rochester, though. The NYC ones had the sense to just move on when I wasn't buying it.

yes, they do sell candy for their teams, but throughout the whole year? and into the summer? i don't think so.

Most kids have changed their stories to "i'm doing this to stay off the streets"

the worst part is when they make the young kids sell candy...one time i saw an older gentleman berating a kid, he must have ben 10 or 12 years old for not selling enough candy...right then and there i vowed never to buy from those kids...they have pimps..wtf?!

Re: Kids selling candy on trains to raise money for basketball uniforms.

Maybe five years ago, a handful of schools engaged in this form of fundraising (I, for one, could never understand what a junior high school athlete was doing on the subways asking for money at 11:30 on a weekday morning). Nowadays, the number of legit M&M sellers is zero. In fact, so many of them now proclaim that they are not trying to raise money for anyone but themselves.

Once, I engaged one of these kids and asked them to tell me more about their basketball team. I offered to buy the entire team uniforms if he could give me the coach's name and phone number.
The kid freaked and walked away muttering something about yuppies and body parts.

i love the scammers.. it's all part of the big city amusement arcade.. my fav is the Nun who used to go around Wall Street bars collecting for some convent thang! I once saw a bar owner ask her for ID and she started cursing her out !!!!

The scariest have got to be in San Fran... where they will walk down the street with you, follow you into cafés and shops, until you give them cash.

All part of the great wealth distribution! Have a nice day.

The dropped-bottle scam also comes as the dropped-food scam. Somebody with a big styrofoam container of food is walking down the street, eating from it, seems to be concentrating on the food and walking in a straight line, but then inexplicably veers into your path, makes a little body contact, drops the food, and then makes claims like, "That was my one meal for the day! I spent the last of my money on that! That cost ten dollars!" Usually, it's a dollar or two of rice and beans.

I've seen the "I need to go uptown to get my AIDS medication" scam too many times to count. Usually they claim the place is about to close, they can't afford a cab, without the meds they'll die/go into a coma/"get worse" because they're not supposed to miss a day, Medicare/insurance check hasn't come through, blah blah blah. The whole act is so tiresome you might just give them money to go away.

The Columbia University bubble is a big target. All the street people and "crews" (folks who get together in informal and impromptu teams to panhandle or hustle) know that the rich rube ratio is very high up there. I've seen pickpocketings, street hustles, grifts, shakedowns, chain snatchings, you name it. The only thing that pays more consistently for them is three-card monte in Chinatown: you get tourists and bridge-and-tunnel rubes who are out on the town to spend money and are very free with it.

girlacross-i have seen this guy too. he even told me i could take the cab with him and he would repay me when he got to wherever he was going. i didn't give him any money and wished him well. and then i saw him again about a month later, in the same spot, and he gave me the same story. i said "come on! didn't you do that last month?" he got mad and left.

buying a metrocard. Just as my card popped out of the "refilled card slot" a girl at the machine next to me dropped har card in front of me. weirdly enough I completely ignored her, too consumed with the balancing act of getting my card and wallet in my bag. my natural instinct is to pick up anything anyone drops, and I realized after the fact that this was most likely her plan, a way for her to distract me and get my new card. she nearly threw her card across my path.

once in 1998 on the UES and once in 2005 in Chelsea, the same guy approached me and said I should be on TV...he said he's casting a show like the simpsons and i'd make a great voice for the cow...i don't know why i = cow voice (i'm a pretty small girl) but he then tried to get me to go with him and "record" something in the studio. it's by far the most bizarre scam i've ever encountered and i can't believe it happened twice to me in the course of 7 years...

"i'm a tourist from out of town - can you break a $100?" they pull out the $100, you (like an idiot) open your wallet because you want them to see that NY'ers are nice, they grab your wallet and run. You are left walletless.

So many gullible people on here. Nearly EVERY time a stranger on the street comes up to you, they're a scammer. I don't care if I see someone bleeding to death, asking me for money. I just walk by and mind my own business and don't give them anything, not even my attention. Or, if they get in my face, I simply scowl while opening my eyes wide, which is my "fuck with me and I'll kill your sorry ass" stare. Works every time.

The con on Metro-North and other commuter trains is a guy in T-shirt and jeans, a little scruffy but not homeless looking, trolls the late-ish trains (10pm and on) saying that either he lost his wallet or got mugged, and needs some weird off amount like $2.30 to get home to somewhere in the suburbs. People either give him a buck or 5 bucks.

This was a nightly routine in the late 80s-early 90s when I worked the semi-late shift and took the 11pm/mid/1am trains on a regular basis. I saw the guy every night for 6 months.

girlacross, what I don't get is why you gave him money for a purported cab when he was on a bike. Even if he legitimately had to be uptown, he was RIDING A BIKE. I can get from Washington Square to 125th Street in less than half an hour.

Why be effeminate if you're not gay? Is it a turn on for any female to have a raging hetero flamer for a mate?

yeah, i remember that guy that used to comb the late trains at grand central trying to get 2.30$ or whatever. there was another older guy who used to do that but just used the "i'm a hungry veteran" thing which sucks when you are sitting down in a seat and they corner you.

though it's more of a joint crime rather than a scam, whatever happened to the dudes on the subway who would swipe you through for a dollar? they ran rampant in upper manhattan in the late 90's

once at about 8:30 am in clinton hill/bed stuy: a short black guy with fancy dreads, dressed like a fashionista, carring a big bag like photo stylists do. claimed to be 'out here' for a shoot but got lost and scared of brooklyn and needs to get back to manhattan but lost his wallet. obviously a scam, but i carry a spare pay-per-ride metrocard and i offered it to him and he refused, saying he wanted to take a cab and couldn't i give him some cash for that? this is right in front of the C train entrance. i said sorry that's all i've got and offered it again and he turned and stomped off in a huff.

a few weeks later- same guy, different tale (mugging), near union square. told him he'd tried it on me before, same stomping off in a huff.

the worst thing about these scams is that they prey not on people's sympathy or guilt, but very specifically on their kindness. it takes a special kind of sociopathy to do that.

I, too, was taken for $$ by the locked-out-of-his-place guy on a bike who had to be somewhere in a hurry. I encountered him on Park Ave So. & 30th street about six years ago. I think I gave him $15. Even before I fished the money out of my pocket I thought to myself, "He needs to be somewhere in a hurry -- but he has a *bike*" He asked for my work address, so he could repay me, but of course I never heard from him.

More recently I gave money to a guy who works in Fort Greene, down around BAM. Carrying a clipboard and with a very intent manner, he starts out by saying "Did I get you yet?" and proceeds to tell you about the kid who was shot in the playground right around there -- didn't you read about it in the newspaper? -- and whose family cannot afford a proper burial service. He asks you to sign the clipboard, recognizing you to the family as a donator. I gave him $5 and a fake name when I moved into the area two years ago. I've seen him a couple of times since then, always with the same line. I'm dying for him to hit me up again -- "Did I get you yet?" "Yeah, buddy. You got me."

I fell for this same scam in Boston once about seven years ago. I was up there on a business trip and a guy bumps right into me drops a bag with a glass bottle and says "did you do that on purpose?" I'm originally from a small town and had never been in any situation like this before and apologized. He said it was whiskey for his Mom in the hospital, which made about zero sense. I gave him $20 figuring that was a good trade-off for safety, considering I was carrying about $400 cash at the time.

Bickie said:
"I don't care if I see someone bleeding to death, asking me for money. I just walk by and mind my own business and don't give them anything, not even my attention."

Although I appreciate and understand this attitude, I have to say that I've been on the other side of the coin.

A couple of years ago I was riding my bicycle between williamsburg and fort greene when I was knocked off my bike by a van. The dude didn't stop and when I got up I realized my wrist was sliced down to the tendons.

I tried to stop two people for help, and when the third said, "sorry man, I'm late for work.", a bit pissed and bit in shock I screamed, "DUDE, I'm FUCKING BLEEDING!!"... and thankfully the guy stopped.

The difference between me and scammer, like you said, I wasn't asking for money, I was asking for someone to help me lock up my trashed bike. But the guy had to give me at least a little attention to figure that out. I think you can do that without setting yourself up to be victimized.

"And also, what makes you say he was gay?"

Because I'm a gay woman and can spot a gay man at 10 paces. Anyway, yes it was completely rediculous that I fell for the guy. I NEVER give people money or acknowledge a request for something. Was that one time in my life I went against everything I knew instinctively about scammers. Yeah, he was on a bike, but could have put it in the trunk of a cab. Whatever. I said goodbye to my $20 long ago.

This winter, I spent a few nights a week playing hockey in central park. Nightly at the 110th street 2/3 station there would be a woman who constantly would ask, "do you have 50 cents?"

After a few weeks of giving her some spare change, and getting hit up for it every single night I got tired, and switched up my response.

"Do you have 50 cents?" she asked.
"You bet I do!" I replied, and kept walking.