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SCAM ALERT: Watch out for guy who will ask if you speak English

Waking life

By Waking life,
in San Juan, PR

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Lsimon

Lsimon

Posted
Posted (edited)
If you see him, tell him to watch out for muggers.

 

Cool! I will print a copy and if I see him, I will ask for his autograph! :eek::eek::eek:

 

Yes! Because confronting a criminal who is trying to scam and steal from you is always such a safe and wonderful way of having fun. :eek:

 

You people are crazy!

Are you sure this person is never ever violent?

He is a crook and as such will have two goals: #1 - get your money from you; and #2-Keep from getting caught and going to jail. Do you really how far he'll go to achieve these?

Personally I would never attempt to mock or antagonize such a person. I've seen him, well before these warnings, and as soon as I realized his pitch for what it was I just walked away quickly.

Edited by Lsimon
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Lard Greystoke

Lard Greystoke

Posted
Posted

Yes! Because confronting a criminal who is trying to scam and steal from you is always such a safe and wonderful way of having fun. :eek:

 

I'm sure the warning is well meant.

 

You people are crazy!

 

Human nature is an interesting subject.

 

Are you sure this person is never ever violent?

 

100% certainty is setting the bar high. It so happens that I have extensive experience with downtown scammers in my own interesting neighborhood. In my opinion, for what it's worth, the law of averages is going to weed out extreme behavior on the part of these people who function essentially in the open. Panhandlers are conspicuous, not only to you and me but to the police. If they become violent they are very easy to find and remove from society.

 

He is a crook and as such will have two goals: #1 - get your money from you; and #2-Keep from getting caught and going to jail. Do you really how far he'll go to achieve these?

 

I think the term "crook" is too broad - street hustlers and serial killers are two different animals. Criminals, like the rest of us, are creatures of habit and have a comfort zone. This guy has to have had a million encounters of all types. If he were going to flip out, odds are he would have done so long ago.

 

Personally I would never attempt to mock or antagonize such a person. I've seen him, well before these warnings, and as soon as I realized his pitch for what it was I just walked away quickly.

 

I think this is the best approach. But, if this guy chooses to exercise his First Amendment rights on total strangers, they have the same right in return. I would definitely advise against getting hostile or violent with him, or even taking his racket terribly personally.

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FireStation46

FireStation46

Posted
Posted
Yes! Because confronting a criminal who is trying to scam and steal from you is always such a safe and wonderful way of having fun. :eek:

 

I'm sure the warning is well meant.

 

You people are crazy!

 

Human nature is an interesting subject.

 

Are you sure this person is never ever violent?

 

100% certainty is setting the bar high. It so happens that I have extensive experience with downtown scammers in my own interesting neighborhood. In my opinion, for what it's worth, the law of averages is going to weed out extreme behavior on the part of these people who function essentially in the open. Panhandlers are conspicuous, not only to you and me but to the police. If they become violent they are very easy to find and remove from society.

 

He is a crook and as such will have two goals: #1 - get your money from you; and #2-Keep from getting caught and going to jail. Do you really how far he'll go to achieve these?

 

I think the term "crook" is too broad - street hustlers and serial killers are two different animals. Criminals, like the rest of us, are creatures of habit and have a comfort zone. This guy has to have had a million encounters of all types. If he were going to flip out, odds are he would have done so long ago.

 

Personally I would never attempt to mock or antagonize such a person. I've seen him, well before these warnings, and as soon as I realized his pitch for what it was I just walked away quickly.

 

I think this is the best approach. But, if this guy chooses to exercise his First Amendment rights on total strangers, they have the same right in return. I would definitely advise against getting hostile or violent with him, or even taking his racket terribly personally.

 

Don't fear the bad ones, they count on it.

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pghsteelerfan

pghsteelerfan

Posted
Posted

We've been in San Juan twice since 2010 and haven't seen him and I have to admit, I was kind of hoping to and letting him know he's "famous". From the posts that I have seen, he doesn't appear to be violent but is definitely a scammer. He doesn't seem to be "stealing" money...people who haven't seen warnings and believe his stories "give" him the money.

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Lsimon

Lsimon

Posted
Posted (edited)
We've been in San Juan twice since 2010 and haven't seen him and I have to admit, I was kind of hoping to and letting him know he's "famous". From the posts that I have seen, he doesn't appear to be violent but is definitely a scammer. He doesn't seem to be "stealing" money...people who haven't seen warnings and believe his stories "give" him the money.

 

You and I have a very different idea of what constitutes stealing.

 

I agree that he doesn't "appear" to be violent, but just the same I think it is just crazy to contemplate a confrontation. Even a minor one. But some posters here seem to think otherwise. Guess I'm just a bit more cautious than them.

Edited by Lsimon
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pghsteelerfan

pghsteelerfan

Posted
Posted
You and I have a very different idea of what constitutes stealing.

 

I agree that he doesn't "appear" to be violent, but just the same I think it is just crazy to contemplate a confrontation. Even a minor one. But some posters here seem to think otherwise. Guess I'm just a bit more cautious than them.

 

What I meant by he doesn't seem to be "stealing" (the reason I had stealing in quotes) is that he doesn't seem to be forcibly taking money (that anyone has mentioned) from people. But yes, technically it IS stealing because he's using a lie/scam to get the money from those he tricks into believing his story. For every person who is aware of him, I'm sure there are many others who don't, and he's probably making a very good living. Numerous posters have mentioned being approached by him then telling him he's "famous" and he runs off, probably looking for an unsuspecting target. We've probably never seen him because we have used caution to stay in areas that are well populated by others and never go off by ourselves, which is a good practice anywhere.

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Steph123

Steph123

Posted
Posted

We ran into this man tonight. We were in an area that was busy and not off in an unsafe area. I told the people I was with to just walk away. I remembered reading about this man and his story. I was surprised to be approached by him.

 

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Forums mobile app

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Stinger-pr

Stinger-pr

Posted
Posted

This guy is just a street beggar like many other in OSJ. At least he took the time to conjure up a story compared to asking straight up for some change. There's another guy, also American, who got left behind suffering a deep deppresion because his girlfriend broke up with him in OSJ, got on the cruise and left. But this guy also takes food if you offer. They call him Warrior around OSJ.

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Playa Cofi

Playa Cofi

Posted
Posted

They normally are not rude, they play the sympathetic card. They got robbed, someone died and they have to fly home. You would be amazed but most are american’s taking advantage of other american’s.

All in all they are harmless.

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dchurn

dchurn

Posted
Posted

Just saw this guy in San Juan near where the ships dock. Last time I saw him, several years ago, he was working the area near Starbucks. This time we were on the Nieuw Amsterdam and were walking back to the ship when he approached us and asked if we spoke American. We said yes and he proceeded with his tale of woe. About 60 seconds into it, I said "That is the same story you told us when your were working the Starbucks area" He stopped talking and started walking away. I said "Can we take your picture? You are famous on Cruise Critic" That made him really take off trying to get away from us. He has been working this same scam for at least 4 years that I know of.

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kmpjdd

kmpjdd

Posted
Posted

My husband and I were walking though OSJ and then down by the water by the Carnival dock on 3/16/2014. A man stopped us and asked us if we spoke English and then started his story about how he and his dad got mugged by the forts and the police didn't help but someone at the Sheraton did and his dad went to the hospital and he needed $6 to get to his dad. I felt terrible for the guy, he had several bandaids on his face and a large bandage on his hand like he had been hurt. I was about ready to give him some money but luckily I had read this thread and suddenly remembered it and we just took off and left him. Thanks for the warning and I hope that it helps other people too!

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  • 1 month later...
ockelly

ockelly

Posted
Posted

We were approached by this guy 4/18 at about 11:00 PM. I told my husband "that's the guy I read about on cruise critic" and he turned around and walked away. No big deal, kind of funny actually.

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LuvBNatC

LuvBNatC

Posted
Posted
My husband and I were walking though OSJ and then down by the water by the Carnival dock on 3/16/2014. A man stopped us and asked us if we spoke English and then started his story about how he and his dad got mugged by the forts and the police didn't help but someone at the Sheraton did and his dad went to the hospital and he needed $6 to get to his dad. I felt terrible for the guy, he had several bandaids on his face and a large bandage on his hand like he had been hurt. I was about ready to give him some money but luckily I had read this thread and suddenly remembered it and we just took off and left him. Thanks for the warning and I hope that it helps other people too!

 

This is the same story he gave me and my friend in April 2013, but he had only one small bandage on his face. He approached us on Fortaleza, a busy main drag, near our hotel and a row of bustling restaurants, at dusk. I never felt threatened, even after he called me a "smartass" when I told him he's famous on CruiseCritic.

 

I don't think he's a violent type. He's just made it his career to talk people out of money. He could probably exist in any big city unnoticed. But he happens to be in a location where his favorite type of mark (cruise travelers) has a forum to compare notes.

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  • 4 months later...
LuvBNatC

LuvBNatC

Posted
Posted
Just this morning we were approached... Hubby started to respond-when the guy asked us if we spoke English cause he and his dad were robbed....

I said -I read about this -it's a scam!

Thanks cruise critic!

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

 

Aww! I'm glad to hear our favorite scammer I is alive and well and it's business as usual. He must be making a decent living at it to have lasted this long. And he gets to live in beautiful, sunny San Juan, working his own hours and answering to no one (not even the police, apparently). :)

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  • 3 months later...
khm1

khm1

Posted
Posted
I'm going to be in San Juan 1/30/15. Has anybody seen this guy lately? Just curious of the current scams going on. :rolleyes:

 

 

He is still at it. He approached my son tonight when we were in Old San Juan.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Cruise Critic Forums mobile app

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