As a teenager I fell for the most dumb in person scam. I was coming out of Barnes and Nobles with my gf and a guy approached me asking for money. I said no initially but then he made up this whole story about being out of gas on the way to see his kids and so on. You’d have to be an idiot to fall for that and idiot I was. So I ended up giving him $20, left feeling weird right away. I got in the car, looked at my gf and said “I bet that was a scam”. We went some place to eat then started driving home when not more than a few hundred yards away I see the dude buying booze at a nearby gas station. The only time I felt shittier in my life was when an elderly person sold me a car with a leaking gas tank, knowing that it had a leak.
I can confidently say I’m scam-proof today, learned the hard way to trust nobody, especially unwelcome advances. Ah, the things I did as a stupid kid!
Getting off the bus in NYC one day, guy comes up to me, seemingly nice guy asks if I have $5 so he can get home.
Give him some money, feel scammed, couldn’t say exactly why.
Talk to my Dad about it later and he asks what was it? Was he holding a book or something? Yep, right in his hand obviously when I recalled it was a cheap rough condition paperback book. My dumb brain saw that and said “surely this guy is ok, he reads!”. Dad informed me this was an old scam.
5am in Penn Station, waiting to board the early Acela. I've been in NYC 20 years at this point and have become tolerably good at deflecting our local street scammers, for the most part. I'm printing my ticket out and a construction worker comes up to me, wiry dude with a hi-vis jacket carrying a hard hat. $5 to get home to NJ, his truck got broken into and wallet stolen, blah boo hoo. He got the $5, and it didn't take him much talking to get it. The hard hat sold me. Soon as he turned I realized I'd been scammed.
I gave money to these people, and I don't think it's a scam. They're just begging by another mean. Often I just assume they don't have the chop to just ask for cash, or want to ease me into giving. I just ignore their made up story and give them change if I have some. It's charity, not "being scammed".
I was approached at a gas station with a similar story. I figured it was most likely a scam, but I thought "maybe not" and, feeling generous, I bought the guy a tank of gas using my credit card on his pump, which was the same pump as mine but opposite side.
Then I filled up my car, and later reviewed my charges on that card and realized that my fill-up was never charged. Which is really weird because modern automatic pumps will not dispense fuel without validating the credit card.
I don't think this makes you a gullible person. I think it means you are a helpful, empathetic person. That the world has a number of bad actors does not mean you should change.
Still gullible though. If all it takes is a story about going to see kids to get $20 out of you, you are gullible whether or not your are helpful/emphatic.
I can confidently say I’m scam-proof today, learned the hard way to trust nobody, especially unwelcome advances. Ah, the things I did as a stupid kid!