Some of our readers may remember a scam alert we published exactly two years ago of a young woman asking for money in the neighborhood because she said she had been abused by her husband and was looking for a domestic violence shelter. This past weekend we received another report of a female involved in the similar activity. Here’s what our reader, Elle, wrote:
“I got scammed big time by a woman who stopped me in the street (46th and Spruce) and asked me to help her find a domestic violence shelter. She had a really heartbreaking story about escaping from her abusive husband and she was trying to get to a “safety point.” I let her borrow my phone to call the hotline she said she’d been talking with earlier. After overhearing her conversation I ended up giving her (way too much) money to cover her fare to the safety point in the suburbs. I started getting suspicious after she left and checked the call log on my phone. None of the calls were longer than 10 seconds — she had been pretending to talk on the phone so I would overhear her plight and give her money. It’s a pretty despicable scam, but it worked really well.”
While the account we described in our post in 2011 hasn’t changed too much, this time the description of the woman is different. Elle said that it was “a middle aged white woman with dyed red hair, wearing a sweat suit.”
On Friday, May 10, a reader, Rachel, became a pickpocket victim at Honest Tom’s taco shop near 44th and Spruce. Rachel says that her wallet was stolen and that after talking to the owner, she discovered that she was “hit by a notorious West Philly pick pocket who is known by the alias ‘scarface’.” While we are waiting for a response to our police inquiry about this “well known” neighborhood thief, we wanted to alert other residents about this incident.
May 13th, 2013 at 12:07 pm
FYI Women Against Abuse provides the only domestic violence shelter in Philadelphia, PA. They do not give out the information to anyone that has not been vetted to stay there. Ergo, if you run into someone asking you how to get to the shelter or that they are lost they have not been vetted and are probably scamming you.
May 13th, 2013 at 12:28 pm
I would think that being compassionate and genuine AND offering to call the police to help a victim would be the way to go, here. While a few real victims may be uncomfortable with this (and yes, I know, domestic abuse, hard-to-be-a-victim, etc.) for good reason, I would hope the majority would take the help. And that allows the passerby to be of help to a real victim and unfazed by a scammer.
Scammers are smart. We need to get smarter, too.
May 13th, 2013 at 12:28 pm
this woman’s name is dana and she is pretty clearly being ‘pimped’ by an abusive man (who many people have seen around when she’s asking for money)- she often has very real burns and bruises. rather than getting indignant that you got ‘scammed’ and vilifying this poor woman, get your head out of your ass and think about what this person is going through and why she might need your $5 more than you do.
also, if you feel ‘cheated’ because you were kind to someone who you feel doesn’t deserve it, you are not actually a kind person.
May 13th, 2013 at 12:33 pm
I disagree. If you offer help to someone who doesn’t really need it, that is a limited resource that could have been either used by you or given to someone more deserving. The people in our neighborhood who help random people with money are not rolling in dough themselves, I am sure.
May 13th, 2013 at 12:45 pm
I had no idea who this woman was or why she wanted my money. She did look scared and beat up, which is why I did what I could to help (for the record, it was more than $5). If she’s the same woman you’re talking about, I sincerely hope that I’m wrong about getting scammed and that she did use the money to get away.
For the record, I’m the same commenter that made the sarcastic point about not giving money to pan handlers on the post about the guy at the El. Look who’s eating her words now…
May 13th, 2013 at 10:21 pm
Elle- I am pretty sure I encountered the same woman about three weeks ago; I let her use my phone but placed the call myself, and it actually was to a hotline, which made me fully believe her story- though now I see the gaps. I gave her some subway tokens. I just wanted to let you know that you’re not alone in believing the story and wanting to help!
May 13th, 2013 at 1:18 pm
Rgl, If you do indeed know this woman are you doing anything to help her get out of her situation? Sounds like she is in a real awful situation. Is she doing anything to get herself help?
Also I don’t think anyone should be chastised for feeling like they were scammed and alerting the community. If what you wrote is true about this woman how is anyone on the street, in a brief encounter, supposed to discern all the facts about this persons life? And if you don’t realize that West Philly has had many different scam artists operate over the years then you must be new to the area.
In short, nobody likes to be misled and taken advantage, if you don’t realize that you’re the one with your head in your ass. What you wrote, however well intended, looks foolish.
May 13th, 2013 at 2:39 pm
rgl, I think it’s you who need to visit the proctologist. Why should we pay Dana’s pimp to beat and burn her? Moronic.
May 18th, 2013 at 3:50 pm
Exactly.
May 13th, 2013 at 1:03 pm
Does anyone reading this thread, or in the entire universe for that matter, actually think that this woman is going to get to keep Elle’s money, be it 50c or $50? What a ridiculous statement to make, rgl, and very offensive to Elle as well. You yourself said she probably has a pimp, and then you’re accusing Elle of not wanting to give her money (when she actually did!) that you’re saying she won’t be able to keep and that won’t go to helping her at all.
Call the cops. You can be as genuine and caring and compassionate as anyone else, and you can take a victim seriously, and you can still know this a matter for someone larger than a stranger on the street. That way, you’re taking all of the ‘what ifs?’ off the table. If she’s a real victim? Great, call the cops. If she’s a scammer? Great, call the cops. If she’s lying but still being abused? Great, call the cops.
In my experience, the Penn Police are pretty responsive, so you might want to try them.
May 13th, 2013 at 1:09 pm
I would have never extended my phone to her but would have offered to call the police for her and to stay with her until they arrived. That would have been the extent of it for me. Don’t feel bad about trying to do the right thing and getting scammed. You know your heart and you know your intentions were genuine and that’s all that matters.
May 13th, 2013 at 1:52 pm
And I would also say the other side of that is true too–don’t feel bad about being willing to call the police and staying with someone, but not going further.
How many of us have come across a stranger on the street who was actually in a bad way and walking around looking to ask someone for what was needed to fix the problem? How often does that actually happen? To any of us? I’m not talking about witnessing a car accident and helping, I’m talking about happening upon a stranger with a story about a problem and who needs cash to fix it.
I don’t think I know of a single time it’s happened to me.
But I’ve been approached by scammers 100 times.
May 13th, 2013 at 4:01 pm
Again, the more elaborate the story, the more likely it’s a scam. Don’t feel sorry for scammers, they do NOT represent the poor and disadvantages as RGI seems so quick to paint them. That is part of their scam, and misrepresenting those who really are in need just reinforces the stereotype that the poor are shiftless criminals and turn people off people to helping them at all. I agree with RGI that they do need help and are “victims” too, but they seem to need the help of the criminal justice system, who are best able to deal with their particular dysfunction.
May 14th, 2013 at 11:03 am
Does anyone know more about this “scarface” character?
And how did the Tom’s folks know it was him? Did they witness him in the store?
May 18th, 2013 at 12:11 pm
“Scarface” also known as Tony Montana died in the end. Really, what we’re left with here is merely a ghost.
May 22nd, 2013 at 3:38 pm
another regular scam going on is the guy who walks around fairmount saying he needs money to get his family over the bridge back to jersey. the third time i realized there IS no toll to go to jersey..haha. FYI He wears a badge to a center city hotel (i think courtyard marriott)
May 22nd, 2013 at 4:15 pm
I get a kick out of a good story. If someone impresses me, I give them a buck. If not, I don’t. One guy working Baltimore avenue gave me a spiel about needing money to get to his aids treatment. He was pretty good, so I gave him a dollar. But he hit me up again a few days later without realizing it. When I told him, he just walked away without a word.
June 19th, 2013 at 4:25 pm
This woman must have moved up a few blocks because she was doing it on Penn’s campus last fall until Public Safety got multiple reports and they put a warning in the Daily Pennsylvanian about it. Unfortunately she stopped me in the Penn Bookstore crying and I gave her 2 SEPTA tokens and 10 dollars to use regional rail weeks before the article appeared. Since she approached me in the bookstore and claimed to have gone to Penn’s Women’s Center, where they said they could not help here because she wasn’t a student, I thought she was likely being sincere and helped her. I turned out to be wrong about the sincerity, but karma will get her in the end.