June 26, 2007

Fool Me Once, Shame On You. . .

I was reading about scams the other day and it got me thinking.

I don' t believe I have been duped many times, but a story that immediately came to mind was a time I was took for $20, and gave it to the guy with a smile. A few years back, when I was living in an apartment, my roommates and I were kicking back in front of our place when a guy walked up looking sweaty and tired. He explained to us that he was our new neighbor in a unit just across the pool, and had run into some bad luck. His moving van ran out of gas down the hill, and he was trying to get everything moved in to his new place before he had to work that evening. He asked if he could borrow $20, and repay it the next day. Wanting to be a helpful neighbor, I gave him $20 and wished him luck. After a couple of days of not hearing back from the guy, I began knocking on the doors of the apartments across the pool. No one had heard of a new neighbor moving in, or had seen the guy. I couldn't believe how gullible I was. It wasn’t so much the $20, but the fact that someone would take advantage of another person that was trying to help.

Another story that came to mind was the time my buddy bought a VCR (before DVD’s) from a guy selling them out of the back of his trunk in a parking lot. My friend gave the guys $50 for a new, unopened VCR. He raced home, excited to test his new purchase. Upon opening the shrink wrapped box, he realized that instead of buying a VCR, he bought a VCR box filled with bricks. Granted, he deserved what he got for buying what would likely have been stolen merchandise.

Do you have a good story of a time you have been coned?

2 comments:

Everyday Finance said...

Hey, I got burned once too. I was out with some friends and a guy approached me (it was around christmas and i was in the spirit!). He said his car just broke down and he needed another 10 bucks to pay the tow driver due to only having so much cash on him or something, I can't remember the exact reason, but it either sounded legit or I was a little tipsy. Anyway, he didn't look like a bum and I felt like helping someone out around the holiday, so I gave him 10 bucks so he could get his car back. Later that night, I saw him doing the same thing to someone else. He saw us coming and scurried away. My friend was busting on me for being duped. The things people do for money...

1MansMoney said...

Ouch, duped while sharing the Christmas spirit.