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Nicely dressed sob-story guy scams BU student
By adamg on Wed, 11/19/2014 - 7:56am
BU Police reported yesterday:
A BU student was likely the victim of a scam yesterday when the student parted with $100 to help the nicely dressed gentleman who needed the money for a cab to get to an important meeting because his car had a flat tire.
Over the last several years BU students have been victimized by scam artists posing as a person in distress and needing a large amount of cash. Appealing to the students' good nature the suspect, usually well-dressed and polite, requests money needed urgently due to some sort of emergency, usually due to a car accident or broken down car. The suspect then offers to go with the unsuspecting victim to the nearest ATM.
Police say they don't wish to stop students from being generous, but that they really should count to ten first in certain situations:
Requests for large amounts of cash from a stranger on the street is one of those situations.
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Comments
Is this the guy..
...who plays the race card if you don't help him out? I may have seen him causing an uproar in the Starbucks on Newbury Street after someone told him to get lost.
Yup!
I called him out about two months ago in the Financial Dist., his response was to call me every homosexual name know to man.
"his response was to call me every homosexual name know to man"
That sounds impressive. If he redirects that skill he'll be sure to clean up on Jeopardy.
"Lance"? "Cliff"? "Big Smoky"
"Lance"? "Cliff"? "Big Smoky"?
What's with these youts today
What's with these youts today? When they learned their new world ABC's , A is for ATM. never bring a stranger to yours , or for that matter , never trust a stranger. Sheesh !
Never trust a stranger?! Sheesh!
Never, kvn? By and large, most "strangers" are not scammers.
Scammers target all ages and all ages are gullible. Youths, by being youths, are newer to the ways to the world and perhaps some may be more gullible. But this is not a "today" thing. Scammers and those scammed have been around since human beings could figure out to con other human beings.
agreed
hell I was a victim myself of a scam a few years ago.. didn't realize it until after it was over. These guys were good.. very good.
But I agree to some degree with KVN. Its about street smarts. Like you don't walk out of an ATM and flash your cash. hell, you really shouldn't take money out in public at all if you can help. (i.e. counting your money at the T or something silly).
You quickly learn what NOT to do when you're young and stupid. I did... and I think these BU students now have also.
I can't believe you're victim
I can't believe you're victim-blaming like this! It's outrageous to suggest that youths shouldn't be free to "flash their cash" whenever or wherever they please, or be unable to take anyone they want to the ATM without being victimized.
We need to teach all nicely-dressed men not to scam. People like you need to stop making excuses for scammers -- you're just like the ageist Taliban who want to keep youths at home and treat them like the property of the old, not letting them hold jobs, go out at night, or drive without supervision.
Huh
Are you for real? Get a clue OK.
There's a fine line between victim blaming and being smart about your surroundings.
God the anon's on here have the IQ of a gnat.
Time to re-tune that sarcasm
Time to re-tune that sarcasm detector, Cyb. It keeps getting miscalibrated. Did you store it near a magnet? 8-)
uh
what part of "text on a screen does not translate to sarcasm very well" do you not understand? folks really need to start using the /s more on here to note sarcasm.
Scratchie-darling, I deal with idiots on a daily basis. The stupidity of the general public does not phase me anymore. You'd be surprised at what people really do think and believe... so comments like the above could very well be true and believable according to the poster.
I thought it was a pretty
I thought it was a pretty obvious satire of the "how dare you blame that woman for walking through the Fenway alone at 3am" posts that are so common around here. If you have to mark every joke with "This is a joke", it sort of defeats the purpose.
Congratulations. You want a medal or a monument? I'm sure everybody else here does, too.
I should
get a metal for replying to all your posts!
No one's forcing you, darling
No one's forcing you, darling.
Its like
you're a ScratchieDrug... can't.resist....
My posts are like
Bad Medicine.
Metal, eh?
How about some gallium?
I didn't think this was
I didn't think this was obvious sarcasm. Sorry.
If that wasn't obvious
If that wasn't obvious sarcasm then you have fallen into a Kafkatrap and taken severe Gramscian Damage.
But That Would Be Cheating!
Now at Stop N Shop SouthBay
He is or was working at Stop N Shop at Southbay Mall area. Couldnt believe my eyes when I saw him. We should contact his manager just out of spite so he loses his job if he hasnt screwd that up already.
Flashing Cash?
You mean, like what happens when the taxi with the "broken" credit card reader is waiting for you to use the ATM off hours?
If the credit card machine is
If the credit card machine is broken I simply tell the cab that it's illegal for him to be operating and to have a nice night. The machine usually fixes itself after that.
Has that worked every time?
That's a good line to keep in mind.
Yup
And I say that I have no cash and I'm not going to an ATM. If he wants to get paid, he'd better fix the machine. Miraculously, the machine "reboots" and works.
Depending on how annoyed I am I also tell the guy that I have a picture of his driver # and the cab # and that I'm going to call the hackney division.
Youths?
I thought all old people were gullible? Man, I have to change my target market.
Duck , no , nay , never .....
Duck , no , nay , never ........
It's reprehensible that youth
It's reprehensible that youth are encouraged to help others.
cheap life lesson
cheap life lesson
Wish the school would teach
Wish the school would teach them a little street smarts
They just did
Most of these students won't learn until they're on their own that there is a fine line between honestly helping someone in need and being scammed. That's what going away to college is all about, particularly for students from non-urban areas. It's not like the kids haven't been told this before, it's just they need to experience it for themselves for it to sink in.
Was it this guy?
http://elliotdavisconman.blogspot.com/
EDIT!
Sorry! I didn't see Adam's link above.
Show pic to police
You were scammed. You have his photo. Walk to the nesrest police station and show them the photo.
They'll keep running this
They'll keep running this scam as long as it keeps working. And as long as we get a yearly influx of not-so-city-smart kids from Connecticut and NJ who don't have a BS meter, they'll keep hitting profitable areas like BU. As far as life lessons go, at least this one is on the lower end of the cost spectrum.
As far as life lessons go, at
Yep.
"You remember 'rent'? It was one of father's words-- Rent to the ideal, to his own faith in human nature. You remember how he would trust strangers, and if they fooled him he would say, 'It's better to be fooled than to be suspicious'--that the confidence trick is the work of man, but the want-of-confidence trick is the work of the devil." - E.M. Forster
Question
what I want to know is.. why doesn't the local PD do something about these folks. Then again, it's not illegal to ask for money.
I guess what bothers me is this guy (according to the blog above) has a long history of doing this yet nothing is done.
Then again, local PD could care less. A few weeks ago I saw some folks in DTX playing that stupid shell game. My first thought was.. oh I was transported back to Times Square, NYC circa 1976... secondly, was Hey that's a scam. So I walked over to the detailed cop who was working the Filene's project. Funny, he seemed more annoyed that I was interrupting him than anything else. So I guess when its petty crime, they don't care.
Cops don't care.
Obviously, not all cops but alotta Cops would do nothing if they could.
The only time they "care"...is when the public makes a stink about something and there is some proof that a "stink" has been raised. (Like a 911 call, a newspaper editorial, a formal complaint submitted to the PD)
Then they help out of fear of being reprimanded.
AFAIK panhandling isn't
AFAIK panhandling isn't illegal. Asking for money isn't illegal and simply lying to a stranger isn't illegal. Yes its a scam and its shitty, but its going to be difficult to prove he's done anything wrong in court.
He's definitely doing something wrong
Well, there are a bunch of accounts on the website Adam linked, talking about the guy becoming confrontational when someone calls him out on his bullshit. That seems like the sort of thing that the cops would want to deal with, because it's not far from that to actual assault and battery, especially if this guy is targeting women.
surprised
Surprised it hasn't escalated to assault yet... it will happen. Just give it time as more and more people become aware to his scam.
Next time, tell the cop
Next time, tell the cop somebody just took a right turn on red, or that there's an underage drinker - and they'll spring right into action.
Time for an online campaign
Considering that the young people and especially college students are so connected, perhaps one of them should put out the word to the BU community and everyone that they know. Assuming it's Sob Story Guy, they have a website to refer to. They might consider plastering his mug on every light pole in BU land and beyond.
Just a suggestion.
If only we had an Attorney
If only we had an Attorney General to prosecute con men. Someone notify the legislature to create the position post haste!
I hear
crickets.
I saw this guy walking from
I saw this guy walking from Kenmore square on beacon toward the direction of the corner of beacon and mass ave last week. He was rather well dressed bald black guy, and well spoken. Had what looked like a real leather business looking bag that probably was for the "presentation he had in 30 minutes". I was on my way to Kenmore station behind scheduled. Told him I did not carry any cash (lie), said I was sorry and he said "Don't worry man I believe you" and went on his way. A very odd direction to be walking if he was looking for people to scam, but I guess it seems a bit more legit in backbay then if you are in kenmore...
If it's the same guy. Several
If it's the same guy. Several years ago, he was operating this scam out of Logan. He approached me once as I was departing the terminal. Similar story - wallet stolen, needed money for a cab for an important meeting.
Then, last year, he approached me on the sidewalk outside my office building in back bay. He had an old security badge for a company that is no longer in my building. He claimed that he recognized me as if we went way back. Little did he know I had only been working in this office for about 3 months.
At least the scams have gotten better at BU
When I was there 20 years ago, they would call students claiming to be from BayBank, tell the student there was unauthorized activity on their account, ask for the PIN to their ATM card, and then ask them to leave the card in the toilet paper roll in the Burger King bathroom in order to get a new one. And it worked more often than not.
(And lest the BC crowd snorts "typical BU idiots," it worked there, too, except instead of the BK Lounge, it was the front desk of the O'Neill Library.)
ask them to leave the card in
I don't want to be accused of overestimating the intelligence of BU (or BC) students but this beggars belief. This sounds like an urban legend.
It's all real
I was covering crime for the BU student paper. These were actual police reports.
Well, I guess I overestimated the intelligence of BU students
What are the odds? Online Free Press archives don't appear to go that far back, so I guess I'll have to take your word for it. Before you go casting too much more shade at BC, though, I'm pretty sure that in the general taxonomy of scam victims, leaving your ATM card in a toilet paper roll is a whole lot stupider than leaving it at a library desk.
Its more difficult to
Its more difficult to overestimate the stupidity of BU students.
Apparently.
Apparently.
My connection to BU
My connection to BU compels that I must question your memory dated from the 80's that such schemes went exactly as you entailed. You might have read the police reports it's memory from 30 years ago with plenty of time for stories to go around such reports. Reading a story passing that people were putting cards in a toilet paper roll inside a BK bathroom while "works more than not" is too much to quietly read. I cannot accept it without putting up some challenge.
Sounds like the old , pay me
Sounds like the old , pay me cash up front , go to the back of ( insert store name ) and ask for your new tv.
Scams
It's pretty simple really. Say no.
I could write a book of all the scams I've seen perpetrated in the city.
The best advice to avoid being scammed is to never give the scammer the opportunity to scam you.
If they want you to donate just tell them you donate online or some other way.
If they block your path, walk around them.
I never understood why it's so hard for some people to say no. The guys with the clipboards are always blocking my way in DTX. "NO THANKS!" always seems to work just fine.
As far as not flashing money around........common sense. Also
Never count your money while your sitting at the table according to Kenny Rogers.
http://cappyinboston.blogspot.com/2013/12/the-most-comprehensive-dining-...
I never understood why it's
Because most people have empathy and compassion. I agree that these traits are a lot more rare in Boston, but they are not unheard of. People who don't walk the same paths and see the same people every day don't get a tough skin and don't develop the skepticism that's needed to blow people off when they appear to be in genuine need. Is that hard to understand?
Yeah it is
You're such a humanitarian I'm sure.
The fact is that if someone tells you they are in trouble and money is the ONLY way they are going to get out of that trouble then it isn't your responsibility to help them.
If someone is hurt or a child or a mom or many many other scenarios then it's a judgement call.
Claiming a lack of empathy in THIS scenario is just a dick move. This is one time where a smart person would just refer him to the police.
So Scratchie Theresa, feel free to condescend but you're wasting it on me.
You sound a little defensive.
I'm not claiming lack of empathy in THIS scenario. I'm answering your more general question about why it's hard for people to say no. Because they don't want to ignore someone who appears to be in need. Not everyone is as brilliant and street-smart as you are. There may actually be people in the universe who have never encountered this particular scam before. Is it that hard to understand?
No
it isn't hard to understand. But I was alluding to people who have a tough time saying no generally in life. Not just when they hear a sob story. This type does exist. I know a lot of them. Is that so hard for you to understand? (Hahaha see how that sounds?)
it isn't hard to understand
Then why did you say "I've never understood..."?
I don't understand.
My kingdom
for a "block" button.
None of you seem to understand
I'm not locked in here with you. You're locked in here with me.
Also
I never understood people who always need the last word.
When people start slinging a
When people start slinging a rap , I just say sorry buddy I am on a fixed income., don't break a stride.
Yeah, I agree
I've found that if you make eye contact and quickly say "Sorry, no" without breaking your stride, they know that it's not worth their time to press you.
Elliot Davis (and other
Elliot Davis (and other scammers in general) is fairly easy to deal with. If you have time just say "oh that's unfortunate, lets find a police officer to help you out" and he usually turns and runs.
Nice that BU put out a reminder to dumb kids. When I taught adjunct at another school, a student before class was smug about how she helped out a girl that needed train money back to Worchester but was curious about her LV bag. I brought it up with admin and was ignored. Not even an email blast reminder sent out to the students. Shameful.
The victims Eliot (and others
The victims Eliot (and others who do this scam) usually try to target are the international students who have only been in the U.S. a very short time. My bet is the victim who got taken for $100 was someone from another country who does not understand the U.S. money system.
Its amazing that despite being arrested more than once at Northeastern, Eliot would still continue going there:
http://huntnewsnu.com/2003/02/northeastern-crime-log-107/
Funny part of him trying to scam a victim... only to turn out he was a campus police officer:
http://huntnewsnu.com/2007/07/northeastern-crime-log-78/
In my day...
One hundred dollars???
If a stranger asked me for $100, I would tell him to get lost so very fast. Strangers with real problems do not ask other strangers for money. They ask for calls to the police or for directions.
Back in the 1980s, my grandparents (who lived in along a highway in rural Massachusetts) were awakened late one night by someone knocking on their door. If that weren't freaky enough... They went to the door and there was a man on the stoop asking to come inside and use their phone because his car had broken down. My grandparents said that they would make a call for him, but that, no, he could not come inside. My grandfather told the man that there was a State Police barracks about 1/4-mile up the road--this man could also go there for assistance. My grandmother remembers noticing that she didn't see a car in the direction that they could see from their house, and if the man had come from the other direction, he would have driven right past the barracks. That detail just added to a situation that already felt very suspicious.
The man remained adamant that he wanted to go inside to make the phonecall and got so desperate that he offered a dollar if my grandparents would let him inside. At that point, they shut and locked their door.
My grandparents watched from their window. Instead of taking off in the direction of the barracks, the man walked along the road in the other direction. Within a couple of minutes, a car pulled up alongside the man, he got in, and the car drove off. My grandparents called the police. Of course, there wasn't much detail they could provide other than a description of the person who came to their door.
The Vacuum Bandit
That exact same thing happened to my grandparents but they let the man in.
He cleaned and vacuumed the entire house.
He did steal the doormat when he left though.
Windows?
Did he do the windows? Laundry? The ironing???
You sure the guy wasn't an
Electrolux salesman. In the late 1960s, one of those guys came to our house and tried to sell my mother one of their high-end vaccum cleaners. My mother got the guy to clean every carpet in the house (we lived in an eight room colonial), then politely said "well, I'll think about it" and took the guy's card.
Never saw or heard from the guy again (and he didn't take our doormat).
How do we know his name is
How do we know his name is Elliot Davis? Does be tell people that's his name or what
Saw him at south shore plaza
Saw him at south shore plaza months ago
I'll never forget my
I'll never forget my encounter with this scum this past February on Dartmouth St outside of BBY. I was walking home from Salty Pig around 11:30 and he RAN up to me with the same flat tire story.
I took one good look at him, and thanks to UHub, knew who he was. I was fairly buzzed at the time (just left Salty Pig afterall) and laughed at him and said, "I know who you are". His response was, "you do?" and began briskly walking away.
Thinking about it afterward, I'm surprised he didn't become furious and start cursing at me as he's done to numerous people in the past. I'm glad he didn't, because given my slightly inebriated state at the time, I'm not sure what I would've done.
You probably would've given
You probably would've given his a few bucks...
But the guy works for Verizon
But the guy works for Verizon! He'll totally pay you back.
Thats the same guy I smacked
Thats the same guy I smacked after I caught him playing the racing cards game with my 17years old cousin on newbury street last summer around July , he got smacked and I got the $ back
I only assist murderers
I once was visiting my parents, who live in a rural area. There was an ice storm one evening, and late that night a couple showed up at the front door asking for help since they'd run off the road in front of the house. So I got chains and pulled them back onto the road with my dad's 4x4.
The next day, a state trooper showed up to ask if we'd seen these people in the area. Turned out that they had just murderd three young women, and were on the run.
I'm not sure what the point of this story was, except maybe I shouldn't be giving anyone help.
Where was this? I am
Where was this? I am interested in hearing more. Chilling story !
Do you have a link?
Do you have a link to any news coverage about the murdered young women, or is this more of a, "well, it wasn't actually me, it was a friend's brother that it happened to"-kind of story?
It was in Springfield, MO
It was in Springfield, MO about 10 years ago. My memory is a bit hazy on the details of the crime, and I've been looking for news coverage from the time but haven't had any luck. Doesn't help that I can't remember the exact year, just that it was within a few days of Christmas.
It's definitely not a second-hand story. I pulled them out of the ditch shortly after they had commited the crime, and then gave a statement to police in the following days.
BU STUDENT
What was his SAT score?
I wonder if this was the same
I wonder if this was the same guy that acted all nice to me when he needed $ to get to "West Providence" and proceeded to show me his phone and credit card. when I told him he wasn't getting any $ from me and could use his cc to get a ticket he showed a different side almost immediately. I still laugh about that day!