'Scuse me mate!' - Drive-by scammers.

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'Scuse me mate!' - Drive-by scammers.

65 posts & 59 voices | Started 3 months ago by bravohotel9er | Latest reply from cb

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bravohotel9er - Member

So, as I was walking back to my car in Portsmouth's glamorous Fratton earlier, a bloke in an Astra pulled up and called me over to the window.
What followed was the familiar patter...'I'm not from around here...former sales rep...had been cheated out of his final month's salary...and would I like to buy some Oakleys'.

Anyway, I told him I wasn't interested and drove home.
There've been two previous occasions when I've experienced this.

1) Suave middle aged gent in a new 5 Series at Rownhams Services claimed to be in marketing for BMW and attempted to flog me a 'genuine' Tag Heuer emblazoned with the BMW logo...'promotion expired...surplus stock' etc etc

2) Attractive thirty-something woman in van attempted to flog me some massive Mission speakers for £30. Opened a box up, seemed genuine then offered me an unopened box...oldest trick in the book, I declined.

So, three instances in a 14 year period. Has this ever happened to any of you? presumably a fair number of people fall for these scams or else nobody would bother doing it.

The other alternative is that I look stupid (quite probable, I was wearing burgundy cords today) or I'm just a total cynic who keeps on passing up incredible deals!

Posted 3 months ago #
mastiles_fanylion - Member

Nope but then I live in Harrogate and it's posh around these parts.

Posted 3 months ago #
mikewsmith - Member

Italian clothing salesman in Lancaster services with too much stock to fly home with.......

Posted 3 months ago #
Shibboleth - Member

Just a novel way of flopping on snide gear or shoplifted stock. I've had the watch routine only it was Jaguar - claimed to be on way back from NEC motorshow and had these top watches left over.

Avoid!

Posted 3 months ago #
thomthumb - Member

ha, mates got offered the speakers; comet delivery have to restock etc. anyway couldn't afford the £300, the bloke told them they were so good they only needed 1. They spent £150 on a single stereo speaker!!

Posted 3 months ago #
don simon - Member

So, three instances in a 14 year period. Has this ever happened to any of you? presumably a fair number of people fall for these scams or else nobody would bother doing it.

3 times in 14 years, I'd say it's reaching epidemic proportions. Have you sold your story to the Daily Mail yet?
I did have a bloke trying to sell me some Rolex watches a good few years ago. I asked him if the had the crappy stilted second hands or the smoother Seiko working, he wanted to know how I knew that and then he wandered off. All a bit strange.

Posted 3 months ago #
Nick - Member

Dodgy watch sellers used to be rife in service station car parks, haven't seen them for awhile, but they always had loads of glossy literature and so on, I don't think they were nicked just crap watches sold as expensive ones to idiots.

Posted 3 months ago #
alfabus - Member

i bought a watch off one of these chancers when i was an impressionable student.

usual patter of 'scuse me mate, back of a beemer in the services on the M4.

He started off with high prices, but once I'd told him I was a student he seemed to give up. I did actually need a watch though, so I gave him a fiver for one. He'd been originally asking for £50, so I didn't think it was that bad a deal.

Watch worked perfectly for a few years, and then I lost it.

It was probably still a fake or nicked, but I don't think I did too badly out of it. Don't think I'm quite as gullible these days

Dave

Posted 3 months ago #
Sam - Member

Ages ago some speakers out of the back of a van...

Posted 3 months ago #
z1ppy - Member

Some ppl just have "I'm a sucker" faces

Only time I came across this was on a building site, when I was very young, my dad was offered some dodgy (looking) leather jackets

Posted 3 months ago #
yunki - Member

Since I moved out of the town centre I miss the pub peddlars who used to arrive in my local with a bewildering array of wares..

From kids toys, hand tools and duty free baccy to flat screen TVs, phones and laptops through to vans full of 3 piece leather suites, persian rugs, all the latest fashions and the ubiquitous knock off nigel DVDs..

Posted 3 months ago #
maccruiskeen - Member

The unopened box trick has been catching people out here - news about folks buying laptops only to open the box to find a bottle of water inside

Posted 3 months ago #
bravohotel9er - Member

maccruiskeen - Member

The unopened box trick has been catching people out here - news about folks buying laptops only to open the box to find a bottle of water

There was a brilliant one going on in Dorset last year. People were buying 'iPads' then getting home to find they'd bought a lump of wood...the little rascals even painted the apple logo on them just to rub the salt in!

Posted 3 months ago #
lunge - Member

I've been offered some "nice gold" by a man outside a shopping centre. Proceeded to show me how nice it was then offer me one in a sealed box as I wouldn't want the one he showed me. No thanks.

Posted 3 months ago #
don simon - Member

I did buy a 10,00€ fake TAG in Malaga a long time ago, it lasted ages and was convincing enough to impress the good people of LVMH.

Posted 3 months ago #
elzorillo - Member

Unban legend has it that there used to be a guy sell computers in motorway service station car parks.

He'd put one in the boot of his car and offer it to people as knocked off.. the price was no cheaper than in the shops and wasnt actually stolen, but he'd always find a buyer.

Apparently he made a tidy living at it.

Posted 3 months ago #
binners - Member

When I was a student, if you sat in the Woolpack pub by Salford Precinct for an afternoon (which as students we were occassionaly prone to do), you would be offered just about every item of consumer goods known to man. And I do mean everything!

Some fake, some stolen, some both

Posted 3 months ago #
techsmechs - Member

A friend once got offered a leather jacket in a service station, as they handed the nice 'sample' Gucci jacket through the window he stomped on the throttle of his still running van and disappeared up the motorway.

Posted 3 months ago #
elzorillo - Member

As a young man living in a rough area of town, I'd often get a knock on the door from someone selling dodgy gear. There was this guy who would regularly come with meat in a bin liner. Found out much later that he would steal sheep/pigs from fields and butcher them in his bath !!!

Posted 3 months ago #
joat - Member

Whilst working with chainsaws (running) at the side of the road, a bloke with an Emerald Isle accent pulled over in a brand spanking X5 to offer us some stone cutters and chainsaws. My boss told him to F Off, he got a little upset and started arguing and shouting. The chainsaws, still ticking over at this point, were revved a little higher until he got the message and cleared off.

Posted 3 months ago #
SST - Member

"we've been carpeting a local hotel and have these rolls left over"! - I didn't realise how many hotels there apparently were within 5 miles - all with brand new carpets.

"left over leather jackets from a local fashion show" (ffs really?) maybe the local fashion shows were at the local hotels . . .

Saw bundled bottles of perfume (aka cat piss) being sold in Queens Square - there was even an accomplice to buy a few lots to get things going, and he was very tall. I thought they were filming only fools and horses!

Posted 3 months ago #
coffeeking - Member

~Acutally had this a few times but almost always in motorway service stations.

Posted 3 months ago #
senor j - Member

My 84yo Grandad was recently very pleased with himself after purchasing a "sheepskin" jacket from a "lovely fellow" in a village in Cumbria.
£50 ! he likes it....bless 'im.
The guy was passing through(!?) from a trade fair apparently.

I too have been offered the mission speakers and very poor leather jackets.

Posted 3 months ago #
coffeeking - Member

If someone would offer me some bose cubes I could be tempted!

Posted 3 months ago #
verses - Member

Had a bloke in a smart suit driving a Merc pull alongside me about a month ago. He wound the window down and said "Oi Mate!", I went over assuming he wanted directions and he said "Do you want to buy something?".

I wasn't savvy enough to actually find out what "something" was and just walked off, but I saw him pull alongside someone else about 20yrds down the road...

Posted 3 months ago #
CaptJon - Member

I got offered some mission speakers in portsmouth too. t'was about 10 years ago.

Posted 3 months ago #
joeegg - Member

My mate bought a Cartier watch for his teenage son from a market whilst on holiday in Spain.
It went wrong shortly after so the son naively sought out the Cartier retailer in the nearest city.The conversation about the guarantee didn't last very long and the lad left with a bright red face.

Posted 3 months ago #
ourmaninthenorth - Member

During the school holidays, my Dad made me wait in for the carpet fitters to arrive.

Knock on the door:

"I work for XYZ carpet fitters..."

After a Fawlty-esque conversation, I worked out that this guy wasn't the person I was waiting in for and the carpet he was selling probably wasn't "surplus stock from a hotel fit".

Posted 3 months ago #
Surrounded By Zulus - Member

One good thing about living in a dodgy part of town - even hookey gear comes with a no quible replacement guarantee.

Posted 3 months ago #
drslow - Member

Weird coincidence, our door went last night about 10.30pm. Scruffy French guy with a backpack wanting to know if i wanted to buy what he had. He didn't have anything in his hands and i sent him on his way, but watched him to make sure he didn't go into the neighbors as they are an old couple.

Posted 3 months ago #
tonyg2003 - Member

I used to get the "Mercedes Benz" watches sellers at the servcie stations all the time - particularly Toddington was bad for this. It was clamped down but kinda amusing after a while how desperate they were. They hired MBs to show that they "worked for MB". Yer right.

Posted 3 months ago #
jam bo - Member

I got offered some oregano in moss side once...

Posted 3 months ago #
stumpy01 - Member

Been offered genuine Ralph Lauren shirts in Greenford.

Then offered some £3k speakers. They even had an 'American' hi-fi mag with an advert in the back. Thing was, I was Mr Hi-Fi geek at the time and had never heard of them. I was a student at the time and they still wanted £750 for them....
Got home & a mate rang to tell me of the great deal he'd just got on some speakers......D'OH!! They were massive chipboard enclosures with really crap drivers in them - looked like really cheap car ones and they sounded horrendous. He paid £200 for them. Funny thing was a mate of his heard them & thought they were worth £200 so bought them off him. I guess they did go very loud!

A few weeks ago coming back from CyB we stopped at Telford services and a bloke in a van asked if we wanted a flat screen TV cheap.....

I must have one of those faces!

Posted 3 months ago #
enfht - Member

Bloke at work paid £150 for a laptop that turned out to be a bag of potatoes!

Posted 3 months ago #
kayak23 - Member

Got offered knickers in a Liverpool pub(I declined), Dewalt chopsaws on Brighton seafront out the back of an irish gentlemans van(declined also) Bought some little squares of paper at Reading festival in 1989 which turned out to be.....little squares of paper

Posted 3 months ago #