"Italian" scam artist travels around the country

biko

Washing my car the other day a man drives up and wants directions in some weird Italian accent, dark curly hair, gold rimmed glasses, Silver Ford 08-D-xxx.
He then proceeds to say he's been at a fashion show in town and is heading back to the airport but have jackets over and do I want to buy one.
I say no and he drives off. Then I got thinking "hey wait a minute, I've read about this guy on boards..."

Dublin, Dundalk, Newbridge
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055118764

Galway
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055488422

Wicklow
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055222772

Ruby_Woo

Funny you should mention this, was just randomly talking about him last night - my Dad encountered him in Galway 10 years ago, same story, looking for directions to Shannon airport in a dodgy Italian accent..

omerin

Happened in Cork aswell by the railway station ..

I am looking for a new jacket - send him to me!

galwayrush

Haha, he's 4 years trying to catch that plane home now.:D

BostonB

I meet this guy somewhere too. I think in Dublin. But it was years ago. I assume theres more than one doing this scam...

padraig71

I've been approached with this story before, if not by the same guy. Also been offered a cheap camera and hi-fi speakers on other occasions… I'm amazed people still fall for this sort of thing, it's so old. But then again, how many times have you seen those ads that say 'Earn money from home mailing envelopes'? I once tried that one in my greener days, total waste of time. If it sounds too good to be true, it generally is.

scrubber72

how does the mailing envelopes scam go again, GF is out of work and thought of doing that. Not the scam lol

Fionn MacCool

What's the need for the lame back story anyway? Why can't he just say look big chap, I've some knock off jackets here and they're far cheaper than the real thing, do you want one?

Agricola

This is a global or maybe just Italian phenomenon!

I was in Rome last summer when a pin-stripe suit guy in a Merc stopped beside me and put down the window. He had a map on his lap and wanted to know directions to the Termini station. I told him the way (which he seemed to not really be too interested in)
After that he told me he was a fashion rep for a big French company and that he wanted to give me some samples as a way of showing his gratitude. Real leather jackets or so it seemed. He handed me them out the window and then told me his petrol was low, but because he had gambled all his money away the night before, needed some cash to buy some. Maybe I could give him 100 quid. I mean the jackets were worth 500 apparently, so it wasnt alot to ask! :pac:

In my best Italian i said "Vaffanculo" He gave me abit of abuse, snapped the jackets outta my hand and sped off!

ChairmanMeeow

Awh, the poor guy still hasn't found his way home!.:rolleyes:

He told my dad he was going back to France on the ferry after a sales expo (in Westmeath) and would he like to buy a suitcase of top quality cutlery and set of pots and pans for €50 because they would take them in customs of some BS like that. He bought them and they were good quality stuff, but I suspect there may have been a devious interception during its original transportation :pac:. It was 5 years ago by the way.

mossfort

that scam has being going for at least the last twenty years.
an elderly neighbour of mine was approached by one of these guys about 15 years ago with the jackets .he agreed to buy two new jackets off him .
the italian guy put them into a bag for him and when the elderly man went to his car to get the money to pay the italian switched the jackets with two old ones and the buyer didnt realise he had been conned till he got back to his car and the italian had left.
i think its best just to tell them your not interested and the same applies to the transit van men selling cheap chinese rubbish tools.

zAbbo

These scams still go on, because people keep falling for them

teepee

ya they drive a new rental bmw , in galway for years , "we are late for the airport we must go yes yes / broken english ,
sumbags .

Discodog

I have been approached by him twice - he does not have a good memory, in Tescos carpark. Same story.

teepee

i was driving down the tuam rd and a new bmw start flashing there lights from behind me , i pulled in to the galway plate , said to myself what the f do these lads what , jump out of the jeep and and walk over to the driver fairly piss off with him , i said are you are right , cheaky buggers . :mad:

Gary ITR

I met him on the Malahide Road a few years ago, same silly story

teepee

i was driving down the tuam road and this new bmw started flashing the light as me from behind i pull over into the galway plate fairly pissed off i said what the f do this lads what , jumped out of the jeep and when over to the driver and said " are you all right ha" aiport bull and all that " any way they gave me the bussines card and i took the bussines card ,
Hope this is most use . This happened in 2005 .
Black BMW 05D11804 on the 09/12/2005 .
Bussiness card read , Milano Collection .
Luca E Direttore Genereale ,
Milano Tel 02 671458 .
Cell 333/9168371
Fax 02/671257

Good job i kept the bussiness card might be fake , more than likey .

ScumLord

I bought one of the jackets off him, €50, very nice, it hasn't fallen apart after about 3 or 4 years, quality seems to good for a knock off.

biko

teepee wrote: »

i was driving down the tuam road and this new bmw started flashing the light as me from behind i pull over into the galway plate fairly pissed off i said what the f do this lads what , jumped out of the jeep and when over to the driver and said " are you all right ha" aiport bull and all that " any way they gave me the bussines card and i took the bussines card ,
Hope this is most use . This happened in 2005 .
Black BMW 05D11804 on the 09/12/2005 .
Bussiness card read , Milano Collection .
Luca E Direttore Genereale ,
Milano Tel 02 671458 .
Cell 333/9168371
Fax 02/671257

Good job i kept the bussiness card might be fake , more than likey .

Seems these guys get around, USA, This indicates a global scam. Plate is real too but prob a rental.
Even if the jackets are somewhat ok it's still a scam to sell under false pretences. Maybe our paths will cross again some day.

padraig71

scrubber72 wrote: »

how does the mailing envelopes scam go again, GF is out of work and thought of doing that. Not the scam lol

You see an ad that says 'Make money mailing envelopes - send SAE for details to [some address]'. You send off your SAE and receive a reply along the lines of 'This is a great business opportunity - send a tenner 'admin fee' for full instructions'. If you are stupid enough to send off your tenner, you will get instructions as follows: 'Place ads just like the one you saw, in shop windows, saying "Make money mailing envelopes - send SAE for details", but with your own address on them. When the SAEs come in, send them to our office [aka scam-master's hideout], and we will give you x euro for every y SAEs.'

The story is that it is a marketing company that wants to be able to access local markets that they could not reach by advertising e.g. in the papers.

I fell for this one years ago when I was studying in England, wasted half a summer vacation on it instead of getting a job. I figured there would be very little interest from corner shops, so I placed an ad in the local paper. Hundreds of SAEs started arriving at my house. Every week I bundled them up and sent them off to some address in Croydon. Never received any money. Tried visiting the office in the end - nobody was there, but I left a threatening letter saying I was talking to a solicitor. Not long after, I had a call - they wouldn't pay me because I had not followed the instructions properly and they had found out I had put an ad in the paper (they had become suspicious at the volume of SAEs I was sending them). So I made nothing, actually spent money on ads, wasted loads of time - and had quite a few angry suckers turning up at my house demanding explanations.

Don't go near this one. The following summer vacation I volunteered for drugs testing at the local mental hospital, which was a lot more successful - at least I got paid!

PopeBuckfastXVI

Met Mr. Suits outside my office a year or two ago. He really should get himself an iPhone or netbook, or something that will let him organise his travel plans better...

Michifuz

I met them a couple of years ago onthe Monivea Road. I do speak some Italian so I tried to help them but they kept speaking English and offering me the jackets...so I told them to leave me alone.

sam34

a friend of mine fell for this once

he was charmed by the fact that they called him "young man" despite the fact that he was in hiss 50's and what little hair he had was grey!

G-TAC

I encountered this in The Retail Park in Galway. Same story. Was at a sales meeting with local retailer. Looking for directions to Shannon and went on to offer me a jacket as a way of saying thanks. I declined and he drove off. It was about two years ago. When he left I rang the local garda station and the garda that answered the phone asked me "What did you find odd about that" I answered "Maybe that he wanted to give a leather jacket as way of saying thanks".

Wilsonudevil

He's in Dublin at the moment! Was driving a grey astra. Pulled over to talk me and gave the usual schpeel...

teepee

the rescesion must be hitting him too , he was driving a new bmw the last time i bumped into him .

Wilsonudevil

Wilsonudevil wrote: »

He's in Dublin at the moment! Was driving a grey astra. Pulled over to talk me and gave the usual schpeel...

He must be flying from Dublin..

Mr.Mister

And they say entrepreneurism is dead.

Wilsonudevil

rarnes1 wrote: »

He must be flying from Dublin..

He'd probably be extremely easy to pick up but I doubt that the gards could be arsed since he's only taking a couple of hundred euro here and there.

muskyj

first of all i would remove the notion that that this person/people are italian as it seems more likely from what people are saying that these scam artists could be from anywhere. secondly i used to laugh at the idea that anyone would fall for scams like these such as the e-mails that look for your bank account details because 'a rich uncle has died and left millions' and you could benefit from this. until a friend of mine told me she had just sent money to such a scam in return for a genuine gold watch. fair play for highlighting this guy as with what happened to my friend there are obviously people falling for these scams which is the reason that they are still ongoing. same guy or not!

muskyj

muskyj wrote: »

first of all i would remove the notion that that this person/people are italian as it seems more likely from what people are saying that these scam artists could be from anywhere. secondly i used to laugh at the idea that anyone would fall for scams like these such as the e-mails that look for your bank account details because 'a rich uncle has died and left millions' and you could benefit from this. until a friend of mine told me she had just sent money to such a scam in return for a genuine gold watch. fair play for highlighting this guy as with what happened to my friend there are obviously people falling for these scams which is the reason that they are still ongoing. same guy or not!

It's pretty obvious you haven't encountered him, this guy isn't a Roma gypsy, he certainly looks Italian anyway.

Secondly he's very well presented and has a nice car, this isn't your run of the mill scam, in fact you could argue it's not a scam at all.

To compare it to a situation where somebody gives a stranger over the phone/email their bank details is laughable, those are just scams, you get nothing in return for giving CONFIDENTIAL info', here on the other hand this guys just trying to sell you some knock off gear and passing it off as real, tbh the quality looks good, maybe the scam part is that he'll try to get as much as he can from you, not sure what he quoted me it was years ago but i remember reading this thread a while back and someone got a jacket off him (cheap) that he was quite happy with.

stephenwinder

He's in Dublin! (at least over the past two weeks!)

Surfacezebra

Bought one about 10 years ago from an Italian dude with same story,great jacket it turned out to be too,more of a sales pitch than a scam.

dudara

Zombie thread closed

dudara