milano collection scam

eddiehobbs

In ennis yesterday an italian guy, well dressed, respectable looking tried to sell a friend of mine fake armani suit and leather jackets. some bull story about going back to italy and needing to offload them for tax purposes. €600 for the 4 leather jackets and the suit. My friend paid €100 for the suit as he didnt have enough money. Wondering has anyone come accross this guy? a quick google gave me this

http://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/0/286/RipOff0286215.htm

Seems like he gets around!!

Pacifico

Yeah its fairly common around Ireland

Ruu_Old

Been some posts on boards about it before, I remember one about the same chap being around the airport doing the same thing,

dsmythy

I few years ago i got stung by this by two guys in a car in Swords. God it's good to be older and wiser!

ScumLord

This happened to me about 2 years ago. He said he was at a show and just wanted to get rid of them. He started out at 300 a jacket then went down to 100 for one jacket but I told him all I had was 50 so he gave me one of the jackets for that. Nice leather jacket, still have it.

galwayrush

Real small guy? he came into my workshop about 2 years ago, lost his money and needed cash to get home by that weekend.Met him again about a month later and he flef when i reminded him of his crisis last time, a few months he approached me in the car park of the AIB Tuam Road Galway, he spun the same bull****, i laughed so much reminding him of my 2 precious encounters.:D

sioda

Stupid me thought this was a thread about pizza

seamus

Before the inevitable, "You'd have to be such an idiot to fall for this" posters come along, you have to actually encounter one of these people before you can make a judgement. They're called "confidence tricksters" because they gain your confidence to trick you. And gaining your confidence is what they're good at, seriously.

They give a little spiel and a performance, which is so good it can make you doubt the guy at the front of your brain screaming, THIS IS A SCAM WALK AWAY. It appeals to the little guy down the back, your humanity, who wants to believe that there's a chance this guy is telling the truth.

I never met a jackets guy, but I did encounter a guy in Brussels. He was an Englishman, came up to me all emotional, delighted to meet another english speaker. He gave me a big story about how he was on his way to somewhere in Denmark, fell asleep on the train and when he woke up everything was gone. So here he was in Brussels, no money, but his wife (who he lived with in Norway) had managed to buy a plane ticket for him to fly from Denmark, but he absolutely had to get to the airport in Denmark by tomorrow morning. A train ticket cost €84 and he had no money. He said that I could take his name and address and he'd take mine and send me the money when he got home.

The story is a little extravagant, but not ridiculous. It begs the question - why didn't she buy a flight from Brussels? - but when this guy is giving his performance, you don't really think of these questions. And a performance I got; oscar-winning, tears and all. In the end I told him that I didn't have €84 to give him (lie) because I was only on business (truth), but that I'd give him €20 and he didn't have to pay me back. I've paid more money to see worse performances. He appealed to that little guy inside of me who said, "Maybe he is telling the truth, and if I was ever unlucky enough to find myself in such a situation, I'd be grateful for €20, even if it wasn't as much as I needed".

So as I say, unless you encounter one of these guys you can't tell that these scams are easy to spot. Email scams are simple to spot because they require no brainpower on the part of the scammer. Con men are hard to spot because they're ridiculously good at what they do.

Kur4mA

MMMMMM pizza. Never had that happen to me but have heard of it happen in certain parts of Blanchardstown Shopping Centre.

Kimbot

Got caught out by this but only gave him 20 for a leather jacket plus the jacket got some good use so I didn't mind.

Tinytony

Met him before outside a site I was working. He pulled up, usual story, looking for directions to the airport. Asking me if I was the boss of the site and if I was a rich man etc etc.

A friend of mine had been taken in by his story a few weeks previous and told me about it. So I got him first, I stopped him mid sentence as he asked for the airport:

Me (in full builders rigout): "Where are you flying to?"
Bloke: "Italy"
Me: "Wow, me too, I'm flying out in about 4 hours but first I've got to get rid of a load of suits and some leather jackets, would you like to buy some??"

He looked shocked for a few seconds, and then he just started laughing and said
"Ah you are a clever young man" and drove off.

Riesen_Meal

Happens at Ulster Bank in the Airport all the time, at the ATM aswell... :rolleyes:

My mate was approached after being in the bank, luckily he was broke, as he said himself he wouldve bought them straight away....

Moral of the story, anything thats too good to be true, is!

squibs

Met one a couple of months ago driving around a supermarket with window down. Called me over ("Come on - don't be afraid!" - what am I, Bambi?), and asked if I spoke Italian. The started into the "I am sales person who sells to Brown Thomas, and other department stores". "Oh aye?" sez I, "And you have a load of leather jackets you need to get rid of before you fly home?". "They are suits actually" he mumbled, and bold as brass headed for his next mark - an old man. Got his reg - think he clocked me, cos he left right away. I called the cops and I hope they picked him up.

Why can't they just ditch the expensive hire car and sleazy suit and tell the truth - "I have knock-off Armani suits going for a pony. Are you interested?".

Sugar Drunk

20 quid is not bad for a leather jacket who cares if its fake.

Before chrostmas this scanger girl and heavyset black lad turned up in the ofice selling make up sets. they claimed it was a new product launch by a certain make up artist (interesting as this make up artist has a range by a different name). Anyway, of course these sets were at a special introductory price. Nice enough and a few girls bought them. I didnt once id clocked the 'made in china' sticker at the back of the pallet!!!

stovelid

600 is a good price for 4 jackets, and suit.

If they look OK, buy them.

If you don't think they look ok, don't buy them. You get chance to view them after all.

I wouldn't go into a shop and buy something that looked sh&*t 'cos it had a label on it, so why do it on the street?

ScumLord

The jackets are good, even if they are fake there good quality fakes. Everyone complemented mine when I wore it out the first time and like i said I still have the jacket, it hasn't fallin apart yet.

Did he make anyone swear on the pope?

I told him all I had was €50 (even though I was just after getting paid) he asked was I Catholic and made me swear to god I had no more money on me before giving me the jacket.

bugler

Just don't buy anything off anyone who approaches you in the street. Seriously, alarm bells.

The story is a little extravagant, but not ridiculous. It begs the question - why didn't she buy a flight from Brussels? - but when this guy is giving his performance, you don't really think of these questions. And a performance I got; oscar-winning, tears and all. In the end I told him that I didn't have €84 to give him (lie) because I was only on business (truth), but that I'd give him €20 and he didn't have to pay me back.

If anyone ever finds themselves in the same situation, tell them to go to their embassy, who will help them. Of course this guy wouldn't have gone to his embassy, as he had already hit them up for cash with the same story at least once.

seamus

bugler wrote: »

If anyone ever finds themselves in the same situation, tell them to go to their embassy, who will help them. Of course this guy wouldn't have gone to his embassy, as he had already hit them up for cash with the same story at least once.

Actually, now that you say that, he mentioned something about going to the British embassy, but they would only help him back to the UK and not to Norway, or something.

That happened to a friend of mine on the quays in Dublin about 2 months ago .

eddiehobbs

ScumLord wrote: »

The jackets are good, even if they are fake there good quality fakes. Everyone complemented mine when I wore it out the first time and like i said I still have the jacket, it hasn't fallin apart yet.

Did he make anyone swear on the pope?

I told him all I had was €50 (even though I was just after getting paid) he asked was I Catholic and made me swear to god I had no more money on me before giving me the jacket.

I have to say aswell that my friend was quite happy with the suit, after all €100 isnt bad for a suit. It looks grand. Time will tell if the quality is any good.

JCDUB

Yep, this chap approached me twice at the Ulster Bank beside the Coachmans, many years in between his (failed) attempts.Same story about being late for flights etc. etc.
He's a gas chap, you have to admire him for his balls, I'd say he does alright out of it too if he makes a few sales a day.

More power to him..

cold_filter

Happened to me, same thing they guy was going back to Italy and needed to get rid of his very expensive leather jackets. It started off at €500 for one, I got him down to €100 then I told him I had to go home to get my ATM card but I would be back in 20 mins.. Needless to say I didnt come back

megadodge

stovelid wrote: »

I wouldn't go into a shop and buy something that looked sh&*t 'cos it had a label on it...

You're in a small minority then... unfortunately.

DublinWriter

Tinytony wrote: »

Met him before outside a site I was working. He pulled up, usual story, looking for directions to the airport.

Stopped me on Dawson St. one Saturday afternoon last summer.

He works around the country. Try and get his car reg if he approaches you.

brianyf

Tinytony wrote: »

Met him before outside a site I was working. He pulled up, usual story, looking for directions to the airport. Asking me if I was the boss of the site and if I was a rich man etc etc.

A friend of mine had been taken in by his story a few weeks previous and told me about it. So I got him first, I stopped him mid sentence as he asked for the airport:

Me (in full builders rigout): "Where are you flying to?"
Bloke: "Italy"
Me: "Wow, me too, I'm flying out in about 4 hours but first I've got to get rid of a load of suits and some leather jackets, would you like to buy some??"

He looked shocked for a few seconds, and then he just started laughing and said
"Ah you are a clever young man" and drove off.

You never did a hard days work in your life! So I know this is bull. Good un though!

Blue Soul

sorry to resurrect this thread but he's back, he stopped me on Summerhill Road today same spiel. I waved him on pretty quickly but clocked his reg and phoned it in to the guards

Degsy

What is the problem here?Is he flogging suits for 100 quid?

Sherifu

I've heard about it before. Simple enough scam, just needs a good performance as seamus said.

Loopy

This guy is good, called to my job a few times and damn is he slick..