Just had one of those scammers knock on my door. Eastern European woman pretending to be deaf and selling her pencil drawings to pay for her schooling. The bloody things are prints. She even rubbed one with her thumb to prove it was pencil. The pencil on the thumb before hand trick. She nearly had me fooled. lol
Scammers
- Thread starter atlatlman
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same here in Durham, you never see a real homeless person selling the big issue anymore, all roma or eastern european. Im not racist, everyone has a right to live, to work, but then these guys take the proverbial, i watched a van drop off six 'homeless' people last week in Durham, within an hour they were from one end of the town to the other in their little spots, cap on floor, begging. makes my blood boil!
What winds you up about this? Have/do you give them money? If you don't agree with what they do, and don't encourage it, then what's the problem?
It's the emotional blackmail aspect that's wrong.
Beggars make us feel uncivilized, uncharitable, total failure as a society, and most of us would give to help folks up, yet there are those who play on that to scrounge a living from doing nothing but pretending/scamming.
It leaves those genuinely in need in a horrible inbetween state. They are slated or ignored for actions they weren't responsible for.
Beggars used to be licenced for that very reason. Towns licenced them, so did counties. Usually the physically infirm of some kind at a time when there was no Welfare State or NHS.
M
Beggars make us feel uncivilized, uncharitable, total failure as a society, and most of us would give to help folks up, yet there are those who play on that to scrounge a living from doing nothing but pretending/scamming.
It leaves those genuinely in need in a horrible inbetween state. They are slated or ignored for actions they weren't responsible for.
Beggars used to be licenced for that very reason. Towns licenced them, so did counties. Usually the physically infirm of some kind at a time when there was no Welfare State or NHS.
M
It's the first time I have heard about this scam. Looks like they are moving down to the south of England.
http://www.northyorkshire.police.uk/13733
http://www.spaldingtoday.co.uk/news/crime/please-be-advised-that-this-is-a-scam-1-5441438
http://www.northyorkshire.police.uk/13733
http://www.spaldingtoday.co.uk/news/crime/please-be-advised-that-this-is-a-scam-1-5441438
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Rubbing the thumb over the edge with pre prepared blood on it
Nah, the pencil they saved in the drawings is used to draw on "Damascus" lines onto the blade for fooling you into thinking it's pattern welded!
So glad I live on a Military patch. Nuisance caller = call to the rozzers (suspicious foreign people scouting round).
What winds me up is I see an organized bunch of professional beggars being dropped off to exploit money from people who work for a living. I have no problem giving, i do give, to homeless, to people i think needs help...... one sure way if someone asks you if you can spare some change is to say, i will take you and buy you a sandwich and a drink if your hungry...... you would be surprised the very few times I have been taken up on that offer. If someone REALLY is hungry and begging they will gladly accept your offer. The ones that do i usually drop em a few quid as well.
Plenty of genuine homeless people about though, in fact too many and it is a national scandal when there are so many empty homes. I can't condemn beggars entirely, when I was much younger I used to busk myself and didn't do so badly it payed for a few beers. In those days though busking meant actually being able to play an instrument without the need for an amplifier and backing tracks, you got coins in the hat because people liked your music and stopped to listen, not because of any misplaced sympathy or guilt complex. From time to time I still do play my music in the open air, but I never put a hat down anymore I just play to pass the time.
What if they're suspicious and don't appear to be foreign, or appear to be foreign but aren't suspicious?
Then If theye are not suspicious, there would be no need for the call. But if they are, then forign or not, the call is, 'there are people mooching around, looking sucspicuos'. And if they have come to the door selling stuff, you are able to determine if they are (or at least sound) foreign or not.
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