I snarled at a scammer today...

[Difdi]

There's a lot of beggars around where I live. Mostly, they really are down on their luck, and are pretty easy going if you just walk past. A few are varying shades of crazy and can be hazardous to passersby (the guy who reacts as if physically robbed if not "tipped" after smearing handsoap all over a parked car to "wash" it comes to mind).

There's this one group of professional beggars though, that really gets obnoxious if you don't pony up when accosted. There's about 20 of them, and they all live together. They share expenses on food, rent, etc. They're not down on their luck, this is the job they go to every day. And they can get very irate if you "deny" them their "earned" wages.

[lupo pazzesco]

Great, I just got warned of a new one that's making the neighborhood rounds!!

My boss told me to keep an eye out because a guy will bring a bucket of dirty water and start washing windows of random cars. When customers go out, he'll ask for the money he promised them. They say they never did and he throws a fit. My boss went out after a customer came back in and said there was a weird guy messing with her car. He said the guy told him the guy who owned the car offered to pay him to wash the windows.

Boss told him two problems with that story. 1. He can't "do business" in our private parking lot. and 2. the owner of the car said SHE didn't know what he (The washer) was doing to her vehicle.

I've seen this guy in a McDonalds parking lot. Apparently this happened the day after he was chased out of our parking lot.

[sanchopanza65]

Last time I ran into one of those guys, I gave him every cent I had on me, all 28 of them. The only other time I gave a beggar money was at 1 am in an empty Walgreens parking lot. Don't really want to mess around at that time of night. Street performers, on the other hand, I'll give lots of money, because they usually deserve it. The sole exception is if I see them all the time, because I don't want them to think of it as a regular thing.

[Severen13]

I stopped giving money to beggars after a few too many of them started getting uppity with me and started acting like they were entitled to my money. After the third or fourth time I heard "Is that all you haaaave?" when I was nice enough to spare a dollar to begin with, that's when I put my wallet away to never be brought out again. Too bad, so sad.

[bainsidhe]

Shame shame, Lupo, you reacted badly. Because NOW this guy will probably remember you and you can no longer pull the "Let me get gas for you" game and toy with his feelings. Sorry, I hate scammers and there are too many people who are really in need.

[Fox One]

There's this one group of professional beggars though, that really gets obnoxious if you don't pony up when accosted. There's about 20 of them, and they all live together. They share expenses on food, rent, etc. They're not down on their luck, this is the job they go to every day. And they can get very irate if you "deny" them their "earned" wages.

Heh, brings that one episode of "King of The Hill" to mind.

[Mr Hero]

Yeah you got to love the Houston beggars. You can never tell who the scammers are because most of them are really good at making you feel like shit if you don't give them money. I usually just ignore them, or tell them I don't have cash. Which isn't a lie, I don't carry cash, especially when anywhere near downtown.

I spent two years down in Houston and I saw this. We saw a guy take a crutch out of his van and then carry it to one of the exit ramps off of the 10. He walked to his station without the aid of the crutch.

[Andara Bledin]

I hate scamming money scroungers.

I don't mind beggers so much if they're just out collecting money (even if they don't need it to eat), but when they come up with some fake song and dance, that just pisses me off.

Of course, I don't give money anyway, just food or drink. The last one I gave anything to was a grungy dude on an offramp. I gave him my Capris Sun juice pack, and he was >< this far from calling it "precious" as he put it down. You know a guy isn't faking when he gets that much joy from getting a bit of sugar-loaded juice. The one before that got a half-pack of Ritz crackers. I think that guy must have said "Thank you" about a dozen times before the light changed.

^-.-^

[mikoyan29]

We have a group of people that crop up near the on ramps. It's always the same people and they are always there at about the same time. But it got me to thinking...If they can average a buck every 5 minutes, they get $12/hour. If the can manage this for 8 hours, they are soon making a real living because they don't have to pay taxes on the money.

Instead of giving people money, I would offer to buy them dinner or whatever. Stopped doing that as people said they would just rather have the money. So I stopped giving money.....but sometimes it feels guilty to be the yuppie bastard.

[It shouldn't]

There's a scammer hitting various shopping centers around here with the same story:
"Car ran out of gas. From out of town/came for job interview, can't get back home/has to visit sick mother...... Blah, blah, blah"

The first time I felt for it. The second time I recognized him and had no money. The thrid time I called him out on it.

The fourth time he started the spiel, when it dawned on him that my face looked familiar and he just walked away. I mentioned it to some friends that night.

One of them knew the guy. He says the guy pulls in an average of $50 - $70 a day by doing his scam for about 4 hrs each day.

On sundays he hits various church parking lots and brings in double.

He does have a very part time job at a fast food restaurant (ie 1 to 2 days a week). Since his 'official' pay is so low, he gets rent assistance, food stamps, medicaid, etc. and pays next to nothing in child support.

The last time he tried, I told him taht apparently I'm already supporting him with my tax dollar and can't afford more right now. --Blame it on the economy

Him:

[taxguykarl]

Why would you almost get arrested?

Not sure what kind of charges, but that police officer was not too pleased at getting hit by a flying sandwich.

[draftermatt]

Not sure what kind of charges, but that police officer was not too pleased at getting hit by a flying sandwich.

Assault with a tasty weapon?

[wagegoth]

I pick the people I give money to. If they're quiet, don't hassle me, say thank you, and really look down and out, then I give a dollar or two. There's one guy near my office who wears the same clothes, sometimes they're clean, sometimes they're not, doesn't smell like booze, or look like he's currently on drugs. I've seen him buy a coke and crackers and cheese. I give money to him. The cops leave him alone because he doesn't hassle anyone. The cops around here move people out who cause a problem.

There was a woman for a while at the gas station who would offer to wash your windows. She asked first, and did a good job and did all the windows, so I would pay her a couple of bucks and give her a snack or drink, if I had one.

[Record Store Tough Guy]

The panhandlers in Indianapolis were hella annoying. Indy has boxes on almost every street corner where you can donate your spare change to a program specifically to feed, clothe, and shelter homeless people. Regardless, there would be five or six per block around the stadium and convention center, sometimes right next to the farking donation bins, aggressively shaking their change cups. I've never been so annoyed by panhandlers. I don't know why they rubbed me the wrong way as much as they did; the longer I was there, the more I entertained thoughts of hauling off and kicking one of those jangling cups as hard and as far as I could. Usually I feel bad about their situation, at least, but this time I felt a healthy dose of schadenfreude.

As for your reaction, Lupo, I'd say you didn't go far enough. He's committing fraud, and counting on both your sense of social propriety and human decency to both get a score and not call him out. Bottom line, he's committing fraud, and that's a crime. Next time you see him, castigate him. Shame him. Call attention to him. Point and yell. It's the only way he'll learn.

[XCashier]

Back when I lived in Phoenix, there were some very aggressive panhandlers. They especially loved to target me because as I usually had a small child in tow, I couldn't get away quickly. Sometimes I couldn't even go to the library or post office without several big guys together coming at me with their hands out.

I generally didn't give handouts to those who looked able-bodied, and these guys were all quite able-bodied and able to work; they just didn't want to (this was back before the economy got so bad). The few people who got handouts were those who obviously couldn't work; like the wheelchair-bound guy with severely deformed arms and legs.

The panhandlers here don't come up to you, but there are an awful lot of them, at every offramp and major street corner. I even witnessed two get into an arguement over who got the offramp corner.