SCAMS on trains (Pan-Handling)

I rode 7257 out of NYP today, that's the 4:07 pm departure to Long Branch. I boarded shortly after the doors opened and about 7 min to departure, a 35-40 year old women, who was nicely dressed, entered the car I was in and said (for everyone to hear) "My purse was stolen and I need $26 for train fare for me and my 3 children to get home" There were no childeren in sight, well, to my surprise, most everyone gave her $2 to $5 as she passed through the car. Even the guy I was traveling with gave her $2. He then said to me "do you think it's a scam?" and I said YES. At that point a 20 year old girl entered the car and said "I need $12.50 to get home to Trenton, well at least she had the fare correct, however this was a NJCL train and she would have needed an additional $5 for the surcharge for buying the ticket on the train. The next Trenton train was at 4:14 about 10 min away and NOT on the adjacent track (we were on 4, there was a locked up ML on 3).
So, SCAM ARTISTS or real people in trouble???? I suspect they were scamers, especially since I saw TWO in less than 4 minutes. Would have been REAL interesting if they BOTH entered the car at the same time!!!!

Scam artists, and probably working together....

If a person has a problem like that, they should talk to the train crew.

People gave her money even after she said for her and her children, but there were no children around????? Sheesh.....

There used to be a group who were "deaf mutes" (its in quotes for a reason) and would ride inbetween Newark and NY and hand out cards with sign language and various things like that to the passengers and hope for cash in return. Im not sure if they still do or not.

One day, after dealing with these clowns day in and day out, I said very loudly to the "ring leader" (so most of the car could hear it) "oh sir, you dropped a 20 dollar bill" and he immediately turned around.

AHHH HHHHAAAA!!!!! As soon as he turned around, he knew I had him, and the car was laughing.....from that day, every time he would see me, he would take his hand and slide it under his throat as if he was going to cut my throat.

Had him locked up a few times in Newark - it got to the point where the PD were on the platform waiting for my train to come in......

Yes, RVRR and Don31 it was THAT train...hahhaha

There's quite a character at Newark Penn on Track 4 in the middle of the day sometime.....he claims he just got out of the hospital and had no money to get home because he had to pay the hospital bill.

There's a car full of suckers born every minute.

This scam has been around for years. I've seen it in Baltimore, Philly, Washington, D.C., Dallas. You name it. The thing is, most dont question a "nicely" dressed person. The reasoning is, it could happen. I've left my wallet home a few time. (I suffer fron C.R.S.) I would never give anyone money, but like it was mentioned , tell them to speak to the train crew.

Jtgshu wrote: There used to be a group who were "deaf mutes" (its in quotes for a reason) and would ride inbetween Newark and NY and hand out cards with sign language and various things like that to the passengers and hope for cash in return. Im not sure if they still do or not.

There's this one crazy guy like that, that hands out cards about donating to him because he's deaf and mute on the Newark light rail...I guess he figured out they patrol that less, only with fare enforcement cops really

OportRailfan wrote:

Jtgshu wrote: There used to be a group who were "deaf mutes" (its in quotes for a reason) and would ride inbetween Newark and NY and hand out cards with sign language and various things like that to the passengers and hope for cash in return. Im not sure if they still do or not.

There's this one crazy guy like that, that hands out cards about donating to him because he's deaf and mute on the Newark light rail...I guess he figured out they patrol that less, only with fare enforcement cops really

Stomp on his foot and curse his mother. We'll see how deaf and mute he really is.

How crazy. I'd like to see the 3 kids before I gave any money. In addition kids go half-price.

Although you want to know a bizzare story,

I was in NYPS last night returning from the Yankees Game and a guy "nicely dressed" walked up to my buddy and said he need 12.50 to get to Trenton because he just got out of jail!! Of Course my buddy didn't buy in, but how about that.

Had somone similar like that on 7859 yesterday. Well-groomed guy in khakis and a sweater hit me up for cash for a Trenton ticket. I had my monthly in hand and it happened I had the westbound half of an ORT in my wallet left over from a time I got a ride home.

I offered the ticket to him.

I need to to wait for a friend and take a later train.

I told him that the ticket would be good on any train today (Saturday) or tomorrow.

Well, he says, I really need the cash.

But not to go to Trenton?

Hey look, I'm really hungry.

Move along, buddy. I think the first rule of pandhandling is not to change your pitch in front of the mark.

my favourites:

a man at the mcdonalds trying to sell his umbrella for a bus fare

a homeless guy on a subway train, saying he wasn't there to beg for money or food and then started singing Stand by Me...

In 2002 (or 2003), I was in high school and young a naive.

I was in Penn Station NY. The guy said he got off at "New York" but meant to get off at "Newark" and mis-heard the announcement. He gave me this long sob story and I was sympathetic and listened to him. He said he was supposed to meet his mother at Newark and now he can't get there. Tears were on the verge of coming out. So, after 5 minutes of his story, he asks for enough money for a ticket. Funny story. I didn't have any money on more or any credit cards. Not smart of me, but I didn't. He looked really dissapointed he spent all of his time on me for nothing and moved on.

Imagine my surprise when I saw him an hour later getting off of the MidTOWN Direct I was riding at East Orange.

I fell for something like that one. At Union Station in Worcester. I was waiting for a bus to arrive, and a guy came up and begged me for a few extra bucks so he could take a cab home. I said no at first, but made the mistake of trying to suggest alternatives ("gotta be an ATM around here somewhere", etc), so he kept coming back to me. I felt at the time I was protecting myself from a scam because I gave it directly to the taxi driver, but I figure the taxi driver was probably in on it too.

Been asked a few times since, including a week or so ago at Newark Penn.

firthorfifth06 wrote:my favourites:

a man at the mcdonalds trying to sell his umbrella for a bus fare

a homeless guy on a subway train, saying he wasn't there to beg for money or food and then started singing Stand by Me...

those are not quite scams. We don't know how the Mcdonalds guy obtained the umbrella, but you haven't said that he tried to convince you the umbrella was more than what you see is what you get.

The guy who started singing, at least he was providing a service for whatever money folks might toss his way, even if it wound up to be pay him to make him shut up.

A bit different from the "lost my wallet, need money to get home".

Once at Grand Central there was someone asking for money on the train, it was not long before they were removed from the train by the MTA PD. There are many people who make big bucks off of Pan-Handling, some who are skilled can make a couple hundred a day.

And I bet the ones who are skilled and make hundreds of bucks a day are not the ones who have been mentioned here as scammers. The really skilled ones probably convince the marks that they're genuine charity cases.
The movie Dirty Rotten Scoundrels has a newspaper headline about a confidence trickster. Michael Caine's character's comment is they must be very good if they get mentioned in the paper.