I was just the potential victim of a classic New York scam.
I was walking back to my office from a visit to the Mac Store on 59th Street and 5th Avenue at 3pm. On 53rd Street between 6th and 7th avenues, I brush against another pedestrian walking very slowly to my right. I literally barely touch him. I mutter "excuse me" as I continue onward, while I hear the sound of something plastic hit the sidewalk. I look back briefly and see him stoop to pick something up. My Spidey-sense starts to tingle at this point.
The guy speeds ahead of me and to the right, and then suddenly slows down. I realize that to pass him will require me squeezing between him and the buildings to my left. I am pretty sure at this point that I am going to get scammed.
Sure enough, he turns to me and mutters, "Excuse me, you broke my glasses." He holds up a pair of plastick-y looking glasses with what looks like a large crack and a hole in it, like it had been poked with a sharp object.
I smile and say again, "I’m sorry about that" and hussle off. He tries to follow me, complaining more loudly about his broken glasses. I reach a busy intersection with lots of tourists, doormen, and street vendors. I decide that if he tries to accost me or ask me for money that I will call out his scam.
I turn to face him, and he’s nowhere to be found.
This scam has been around in New York, and probably lots of other places, forever. Among the other "broken" objects used for this con are bottles, food, and cameras. Always they involve some monetary compensation, even when the victim offers to replace it. Gothamist has a blog entry with a long list of interesting comments from people and what scams they have encountered in New York. My favorite is the guy posing as a hassidic jew, who I have seen several times in the East Village area. Who would suspect a hassid of lying about getting mugged and needing cab fare?
Scams and con artists are everywhere, preying upon your gullibility, your trust in others, your kindness towards people in need, or (my favorite) your greed. My most clicked blog posts are about the various con artists posing as staffers from various UN and NGO agencies, offering jobs, free airfare to conferences, and visas to unwitting victims. Many of their prey are professionals in developing countries hoping to get a cushy UN position.
Even in Second Life, con artists have come up with various schemes (some not very smart) to get at your real and Linden dollars. The official Linden Lab blog warns residents to never give out your Second Life password to anyone or any object in SL. Meaning that someone has come up with some scheme to gain access to resident’s SL accounts.
It’s a sad world we live in. The truly depressing part is that living in New York starts to turn off your empathy toward others in need, imagining that every homeless person or really anyone who approaches you on the street is a scammer.
Wow! Thanks for the link to my blog. It’s always nice to know that I have readers. 🙂
Sure thing. I thought your experience was both infuriating and highly entertaining.
I don’t have much NYC experience, but my DC and PHL experience both say: if there’s a story, it’s a scam. If it’s just a question, it’s (more likely) legit. I.e., “hey, man, do you have an extra buck for the bus?” Guy needs to get home. “Hey, man, I was stranded by my second cousin who’s supposed to pick me up…”, scam.
Beyond that, I’ll give points for scam artistry, on the theory that if the guy put in enough effort to actually make it look good (unlike your example), it’s worth a few bucks for the floorshow. One of my favorite stories is the guy who convinced me that his older brother was a deceased alum of my frat, for which he earned a free beer and a ride to the airport; I believed the story until the deceased alum called me nine months later asking why he didn’t get our mail anymore.
These low level cons–broken glasses, cameras, etc.–are one thing. What blows my mind are the suckers who actually fall for the big-time scams, right off the street. Like the guy on the street in downtown Milwaukee, who cornered a victim, conned him, first into a cup of coffee (with the victim accompanying), then dinner, then a big 4-figure up-front payment on a real estate scam.
I’ve been writing on con man antics for many years, but still can’t figure how something like this could actually happen.
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Always remember that the phishing scams and identity theft are running rampant everywhere especially on the internet today. Therefore, it is important that you remain vigilant in protecting yourself against these attempts to steal your identity. Be aware!