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View Full Version : Katrina: Don't Be Scammed



BogusKun
Sep 4, 2005, 10:56 AM
(This topic is VERY important, especially for American Residents... please sticky)

I wish I had my digital camera, because yesterday I was at a train station to visit some friends. There was a family sitting up by the rails and they looked distressed.

They were just quiet and all of a sudden, they were questioned by a man (african-american) who brought another man with him. He asked them where are they from.

They first said they're in Dallas. Like 2 times.
and then the man asked the woman (in the family) where is she from and she says Bourbon Sreet.

(Bourbon Street is a road in Louisiana that promotes city life and doesn't have a residential area)

The man said... "there aren't any residential areas on Bourbon Street because I am from Louisiana, because I'm from there", and then he showed his tattoo of a Louisiana Crest... and it's been there for a long time.

The woman then said... "well we just moved to Dallas from Louisiana." and the other man (also african-american) started asking for his money back.
The woman says "We need this money for food, and I thank you and God for it" and she gets up and walks away. She then said "well my house is flooded down, and we had no choice"

Then people started walking up asking for their money back, and they wouldn't give it to them. I was just sitting back watching the whole thing wishing I brought my camera because I could've took pictures of the whole thing. The faces I could've used.

After like 10 people walked up asking for their money back the rest of the family walked away. Funny tho, I know a lot of people from Louisiana... and those people sounded and looked Texan. I could see it.

Problem was, those people tried to dress themselves down, use their kids... so they can jack money from unsuspecting people in Dallas for money... and there is probably a case just like this in other cities (I know Austin had 2 imposters caught now).

This haven't reached the news yet, but trust me it will... and I am one of the first to witness this and have it down. Just need photographic proof.

--------
NOTE TO PUBLIC: If that person does not have state identification (Louisiana) on them. Do not encourage yourself to just give money to someone. I know what its like to not have food on the table for 3 weeks. If someone is hungry... buy them food... get them a hamburger from mcdonalds or buy them something from the store they can go a few hours on (bread, canned fruit thats easy to open) You can survive months without food. I went on a month myself. I can do it. So can others.

Please refrain yourself from giving away money to people who maybe imposters becuase you're only giving in to crooks. Take steps. Be cautious. And only donate to charities that are backed by actual companies such as, The Red Cross, Best Buy charity, things like that. Because some people go from 1,5, or 100 dollars (even more) into charities and individual people... and maybe someone got robbed of a $100 and that's a lot of money.

Thank you

~C A P C O M~

Jett_Kakashi
Sep 4, 2005, 11:02 AM
My first action in any of this. "Got an ID? Or proof you're from Lousianna?"

InfinityXXX
Sep 4, 2005, 11:04 AM
I kinda knew something like this was gonna happen. I think its pretty low to try to take money like that. But its becoming a big problem because for the people that are from there, lost their ID from the floods.

You can go on accent but theres some people that probably just moved to New Orleans before the storm and their voice haven't changed.

I wonder how people are gonna solve this problem?

Jett_Kakashi
Sep 4, 2005, 11:07 AM
Yes, ID's being lost should be taken into consideration. But still ask. As for accents. Wouldnt go by it. All I know is that its going to get rather crowded here.

FIDELCASTRO
Sep 4, 2005, 11:09 AM
same thing happened to me when i was in london. they were "collecting money for bombing victims". luckily i got my money back.

Reenee
Sep 4, 2005, 11:43 AM
I don't mean to be off-topic a bit, but did you guys see what happened at SomethingAwful.com? PayPal just froze--stole $20,000 from their donation account for the disaster.



<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Reenee on 2005-09-04 09:43 ]</font>

Tispers
Sep 4, 2005, 02:07 PM
There are alot of teenagers here in Alberta, Canada that make themselves look poor to get free food and money, I'm practically used to this kind of stuff. I never thought Americans would stoop that low to get free stuff though, but it isn't like it hasn't happened before, oh well. I usually ignore other people on the street, unless I know them.

yukikun
Sep 4, 2005, 03:31 PM
lol. people are getting very greedy. on tv i saw a bunch of people stealing stuff... including police officers.

tabycat
Sep 5, 2005, 08:53 PM
that's just ridiculous though, all the help I've done for victims has been through red cross and my church. We have a family that just moved to our town that were victims of Katrina they have just decided to settle here because they like the community and they have 2 kids in the sunday school class I teach

BogusKun
Sep 6, 2005, 03:05 PM
On 2005-09-04 12:07, Tispers wrote:
There are alot of teenagers here in Alberta, Canada that make themselves look poor to get free food and money, I'm practically used to this kind of stuff. I never thought Americans would stoop that low to get free stuff though, but it isn't like it hasn't happened before, oh well. I usually ignore other people on the street, unless I know them.



My mom told me, even rich people do schemes like that. Bogus claims like this should put some in jail. Yes the whole ID may sound ridiculous, but something like that should be a step. Don't let someone's "fake temper" fool you. Because that's the step they use to trick you into thinking they are stressed out.

Most of these victims maybe distressed. But if they were really held down by this hurricane... they wouldn't have fully flooded the streets now. They would've been at a recovery center.

These people I was talking about were already on the streets like 2-3 days after the incident.

Solstis
Sep 6, 2005, 03:27 PM
I've come to the conclusion that if someone on the street just asks for money, they probably need it.

Tell me some S.O.B. story, and I know that you're lying. I still give people some spare change, though.

BogusKun
Sep 6, 2005, 03:33 PM
On 2005-09-06 13:27, Solstis wrote:
I've come to the conclusion that if someone on the street just asks for money, they probably need it.

Tell me some S.O.B. story, and I know that you're lying. I still give people some spare change, though.



But using your kids in scams is low. Remember that. Kids shouldn't suffer for the parents mistakes and greeds.

In Austin there is an African woman who uses her son to help her get money. I usually give food to the son... and whoever else out there existing would give the drunk woman whatever. Coins, buttons, toilet paper... I give her bread.

My friend said she gives bread to those poor in Dallas, but they throw it away when she leaves.

They need beer.

tabycat
Sep 6, 2005, 08:20 PM
yeah I kinda thought using their kids was pretty low...but people do stuff like that everyday it's a horrible truth we just have to face in life

BogusKun
Sep 6, 2005, 09:16 PM
On 2005-09-06 18:20, tabycat wrote:
yeah I kinda thought using their kids was pretty low...but people do stuff like that everyday it's a horrible truth we just have to face in life



Life could be so unjust... look at those who commit suicide for nothing. http://pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_frown.gif

Some guy did it in front of a crowd (I was there) once. You can hear his body break and spill as he hit the ground.

Getintothegame
Sep 6, 2005, 09:51 PM
I'm not going to sticky this, but I agree that it is important. News and media have been getting more involved in alerting people about the scams.

I'd say to only donate to the American Red Cross.

http://www.redcross.org/images/psabanners/all/468x60/D5.gif (https://www.redcross.org/donate/)

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Getintothegame on 2005-09-06 19:53 ]</font>

BogusKun
Sep 8, 2005, 03:38 PM
On 2005-09-06 19:51, Getintothegame wrote:
I'm not going to sticky this, but I agree that it is important. News and media have been getting more involved in alerting people about the scams.

I'd say to only donate to the American Red Cross.

http://www.redcross.org/images/psabanners/all/468x60/D5.gif (https://www.redcross.org/donate/)

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Getintothegame on 2005-09-06 19:53 ]</font>


Exactly, what I said. A lot of the victims here have been taken care of. A lot of them seem happy to be here. However, the ones scamming are the ones I'm worried about.