The old Times Square hooker scam

Wednesday evening the 25th, a man came up to me and asked if I would ride him around while he looked for a certain guy. Seems he had been the victim of a scam and was looking for the scammer. Not that he himself was a saint.

He had been walking on 42nd Street, he said, and a guy came up to him and asked if he%26#39;d like to see ';some girls.'; (The visitor was a rube.) He quickly agreed, and the scam artist walked a couple of blocks with him, came to a doorway and said, ';Go in here. That%26#39;ll be a hundred and forty bucks.';

Needless to say, when the guy went in, there were no girls. And when he came out, there was no guy. He couldn%26#39;t go to the police because prostitution is illegal in NYC.

While I felt bad for him because he lost $140, it%26#39;s guys like him coming to TSQ seeking sex, who make the area a continuing center for sex. And that%26#39;s not what I want for Times Square.

The old Times Square hooker scam

Just an FYI, the fact that he was looking for a prostitute does not mean that the police would have refused to take his report of being fleeced %26amp; not follow up on it.

Such con artists bank on the victims thinking they have no recourse, but it%26#39;s a fallacy. Of course, a ';John'; (actual or would-be) may be embarrassed to go to the NYPD, but believe me, the authorities won%26#39;t be flapped by the scenario.

The old Times Square hooker scam

Wow, that%26#39;s really sad. Not only that, the scam was so simplistic, it%26#39;s almost embarrassing.

Funny b/c we were watching ';Six Degrees of Separation'; last night and commenting, ';it%26#39;s not as easy to get away with that kind of BS anymore, in this day and age of Google, MySpace, mobile phones, ID theft, Post 9/11 charity scams, etc.';

Say...how do you know that the ';rube'; wasn%26#39;t going to take YOU for a ride? Maybe the ';victim'; had his own plan to ask you for money b/c now he was out of cash, had no way to get back to Duluth, too embarrassed to tell his buddies/GF, etc...

QB,

No, it was a free ride. I had just worked eight hours with not one single customer -- and two skinny yuppie girls who told me, ';We%26#39;re going way too far. Go bother some tourists!';

So I did a nine-hour day during which I made not one cent. Rather than get bitter and hateful toaward all humanity, I felt bad for the guy who had lost all his money, and gave him a free ride. Doing so made me feel a little better about my own lost day.

Stan

P.S. CockleCove, he was a Swedish Lebanese or a Lebanese Swede. One of them-there Eurotypes.

*** Just an FYI, the fact that he was looking for a prostitute does not mean that the police would have refused to take his report of being fleeced %26amp; not follow up on it. ***

Cocklecove ..... now I just have to ask ..... are you basing your above statement on actual ';first hand or second hand experience'; ..... and where is the ';supporting documentation';? Otherwise some angry poster might claim you%26#39;re basing your claim on ';ignorant opinion';. But then that would just make the %26#39;angry poster%26#39; ignorant ..... right?

Or perhaps you were simply using your extra-ordinary pyshic powers or telepathic communtication again?

He got what he deserved. I dont feel bad for him at all. If you look for illegal things to partake in..than you%26#39;re asking for trouble.

If you had to work (IN AN OFFICE) in TS like I do and see this going on daily as you are on your way to work early morning.. you wouldnt feel bad for him either.

Good for him. He deserves it. He is lucky that is all that happened to him. He should take it as a small price to pay for what could of costed him alot more than $140.00

1. Only a fool would go looking for hookers in Times Square these days.

2. A fool and his money are soon parted.

';Only a fool would go looking for hookers in Times Square these days. ';

Now you KNOW a post like that is going to lead to someone asking ';so where DO you go?';, so I%26#39;ll get it out of the way now lol.

Seriously, I don%26#39;t know the TS area that well but I thought it had all been cleaned up and the hookers were all...somewhere else!

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