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04-11-2014, 07:42 PM
1

A Good Scam

Today I went to the hospital with a friend, whilst she had her appointment I went outside and just watched people coming and going. Three men came, all with clipboards, Romanians I believe. They proceeded to accost people going in and coming out of the hospital doors, myself included. The clipboards had a photo copied form, at the top a wheelchair and pictures of various other disablements. The men were claiming to be deaf and dumb, and very well rehearsed they were too. However I had seen and heard them talking together underneath one of the archways, so had another English man who was waiting outside. The men claimed to be collecting money for charity but they were only targeting the obviously none Spanish people, mostly English. I honestly cannot believe how naïve people are, many of the accosted people looked at the form on the clipboard and just handed over money, we watched in amazement as one woman gave a five euro note and the man wanted ten ! Within less than 10 minutes they must have collected over 70 euros, then they walked down to the car park where another man was waiting in a car, handed over the money and then back to the hospital doors. The man I was talking to and myself attempted to tell some of the people being accosted it was a scam but they just shrugged their shoulders and handed over the money. This carried on until the security guard came out at which point they three men ran for the car park, no doubt heading for somewhere else where there are lots of people. I fail to understand people, every week the local papers warn about these activities, every week they are told that doing this is illegal in Spain, but it doesnīt appear to sink in. Itīs bad enough with the beggars sitting outside every supermarket with a board (all written in English of course) that they have no job and 3 to 6 children, not illegal unless they accost you, almost all are eastern Europeans. As for having no work, well if they sit all day outside supermarkets waiting for people to give them money they are not going to find any work are they? Not forgetting that they change shifts too twice a day.
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04-11-2014, 07:48 PM
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Re: A Good Scam

Why do they give them money it just encourages them to carry on - some folk are just too soft, aren't they? Targeting the English speakers.
This EU is a farce..
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04-11-2014, 08:04 PM
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Re: A Good Scam

That was happening back in the 1980s in the tourist bars in Benidorm.
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04-11-2014, 08:16 PM
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Re: A Good Scam

I never give money to anyone that accosts me or even knocks on my door with money container in hand. Sometimes you feel horrible, but they could be anybody.

In the summer, when living in Thurso an elderly lady knocked on my door collecting for Macmillan, I just apologised and said I don't give money to people who knock on the door. She understood, smiled and left. I think she must be use to that response now

If abroad I don't even speak, just shake my head. That way they don't even know what language you speak.
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04-11-2014, 08:22 PM
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Re: A Good Scam

Sometimes I just give up on people loretta, as I get older I find generation after generation falling for the same old scams, will they never learn? Animals seem to catch on much quicker, my little dog was sitting in front of the fire the other night when a tiny spark landed on his paw, he leapt up in fright and he hasn't sat in front of the fire since.
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04-11-2014, 09:09 PM
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Re: A Good Scam

Originally Posted by cranberry ->
Why do they give them money it just encourages them to carry on - some folk are just too soft, aren't they? Targeting the English speakers.
This EU is a farce..
Not all English speakers cranberry, I suspect that many people simply see the pictures of the wheelchair and other aids and presume that is what these people are collecting for, when of course they are quite simply collecting for themselves. The ones outside the supermarkets know that many British people shop there.
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04-11-2014, 09:11 PM
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Re: A Good Scam

Originally Posted by Jem ->
Sometimes I just give up on people loretta, as I get older I find generation after generation falling for the same old scams, will they never learn? Animals seem to catch on much quicker, my little dog was sitting in front of the fire the other night when a tiny spark landed on his paw, he leapt up in fright and he hasn't sat in front of the fire since.
I donīt think people ever learn Jem. My Finnish friend told me that the Scandinavian papers also warn about this kind of thing every week. Actually Iīm thinking of taking it up, it must be easy money when you can make 50 euros or more in a couple of minutes !
 

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