Scammed on the Streets of NYC!

Featured Reader: Don outNabout by the pool in Odenton, MD


Scammed on Street


One time.....I was on an errand for my boss headed up to 50th and 3rd Avenue. Around 47th Street, a car pulled up. I can’t really tell you the make of the car other than it was a silver SUV. The guy was desperately trying to flag someone down-- Anyone. I felt sorry for the guy. He barely spoke English (or so I thought).

He called me over to the car. He asked me how to get to JFK airport. He apologized that his English was so bad. He kept apologizing. He kept trying to ask me things in Italian. He asked me if I was Italian because of my complexion. I said no that I was Asian/Hawaiian. He asked me if I lived in NYC. I told him yes. I told him that I didn’t know how to get to JFK from where we were because I didn’t drive in NYC-- that I took the train everywhere. He said it was okay. This whole conversation was done in broken English and Italian.

He started to pull away, then stopped and called me back over to the car. He said to me he was “looking for a man”. I immediately thought is this a pick up? Was he looking to get laid before he went home to Italy? What a pervert! He wasn’t all that attractive, though his accent was a little sexy. He explained to me that he was here for fashion week (it is fashion week here in NYC), for the Reportage Georgio Armani show. He said that he had several leather jackets with him for the show, but that he was returning home to Italy and that there would be a hefty tax for returning back with all those jackets. He said he was already taking 6 back for his family but had 3 extra that he was willing to sell.

Alarms went off in my head SCAM! SCAM! SCAM! I told him to give me his business card and I would call him later. He said he was leaving for airport now, that there would be no later. He pulled out a business card that had the name Salvatore or something on it with what looked like the Armani symbol.
It looked legit. He gave me the card and then he got out and opened the door to the back seat. He pulled out a brown leather jacket. It looked nice. He opened it up, showed me the lining showed me it said made in Italy.

He showed me the Armani Buttons. I’m not a fashionista like Herbelicious so I wouldn’t know the difference. It looked real to me. I dialed Herbelicious to see what he would say. He didn’t answer. PRESSURE!!

Salvatore started pulling out 2 other leather jackets still in plastic and on hangers both black leather. They were nice. He opened them up showed me the linings saying made in Italy. Told me that one went for $1200 the other for $900 and the brown one for $1100. He said “I am a good man; I just don’t want to pay tax. I don’t need this jacket. I make you deal, you pay me for one and I give you all 3”.

“How much?” I asked.

Give me $800 price of one jacket and I give you grand deal”. I walked away. SCAM! SCAM! SCAM! was going off in my head. He pulled me back. “You don’t want good deal? Help me out?”

“I don’t have $800 dollars” I said, “sorry”.

“I tell you what…. what you have now I give you deal. I don’t need jacket; I cannot afford tax in Italy”. I looked at the jackets again. “Are you sure they are real?” I asked.

“You open, you try on. You feel. You smell. Its leather” he said. I had a flashback to the pleather jacket I had once bought at Macy’s a few years ago. That Jacket cost me $80 and everyone thought it was real, and that jacket didn’t look as real as these. I had that jacket for years. Just this morning I was thinking that it was getting warmer and that I didn’t really have a spring jacket. These would work.

I felt the jackets, and even smelled them. They were like leather. “How much you got? You help me out please? I need to get directions still and go to airport” he said. Quickly thinking I said $150. I said $150 because if that pleather jacket from Macy’s cost me $80, than surely 2 of these would cost me $150 and he was throwing in a third one for free. (What does pleather stand for any way?) He made a face. For a second I thought he was going to just give me only 1 of them for that price. He reluctantly agreed to give me all 3. I pointed to the bank behind us. I needed to get out cash.

I took out $200 put $40 in my pocket and handed him over $160. I didn’t think he would have change. He didn’t. He said thank you and handed me the bag and got in the car. I stopped him again. I told him to wait as I looked at the jackets again. He stopped and even held the bag open for me as I looked at the jackets. The linings all looked fine. I guessed that $160 for 3 jackets that looked pretty good was a deal even if they were fake. Inside I was hoping they were not.

He sped off really quickly-- I mean really quickly. Vanished. I had a feeling at that moment I was scammed. I don’t recall him taking back the business card, but I no longer had it either.

Herbelicious called me back at that very instant. “What’s up?’ He asked. “Well I will tell you what happened in a bit. I think I was scammed on the street-- but maybe not, you tell me. Let me finish the errand for my boss and I’ll call you back”.

I finished the errand.

I called Herbelicious back. I told him what happened. “It’s a total scam! He was on the news and everything selling things from shoes to ripped suits. WILLIAM!! You know better than to buy things on the street. Are you back at the office yet? Let me see them. My friend bought a suit one time from the same guy i think, and it looked good but when he got home the inside didn’t even have linings!”

I had a sick feeling in my stomach. I spent money I shouldn’t have spent-- Money I could have spent on more important things! “Call me when you get back” Herbelicious said.

I got back to my desk and typed into Google “Salvatore Jacket Scam”. Sure enough articles come up with people spending way more money than I did. One guy even gave him a $500 dollar gold bracelet. I felt sick.

http://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/0/382/RipOff0382085.htm

Herbelicious came to my desk. I pulled them out. “Wow, these are actually nice” he said. Herbelicious tried them on.

I tried them on. They actually fit me pretty well. “They look good on you” Herbelicious said. He checked the linings. “You made a good deal, but this was a total scam. I wish I answered my phone! I wish I was with you! I would have said to him how he sold my friend a crappy suit!” I still felt sick to my stomach.

A co-worker walking by saw the jackets... "wow, what is this, you selling leather jackets on the side?" They were good enough to fool her.

Later that day I told a good friend Mykel what happened. He said "Sounds to me like you didnt get scammed at all. You made a conscious decision for a price based on what you knew, and got 3 of them! thats not a scam at all that's a deal!". I still can't help but feel that I wasted my money.

At least I have 3 coats for the spring now that look pretty good. I’m never buying anything on the street again. The signs were all there and I ignored them. Maybe I still am the Nice Naive Hawaiian Boy everyone thinks I am after all.

For Real! Seriously!

Photo credits: http://theovalcorner.blogspot.com/