That scam has morphed itself into a much broader hustle. Now, a lovely lady scammer practices her nefarious trade using more common valuables, and on a much wider sample of folks walking the streets.

The Mark: Usually a male (remember, our scammer is a fetching female) who is well-dressed, walking in an up-market part of the city. He looks like he would want to avoid a scene, and he looks like he has a few pounds in his pocket as well.

The Scam: There are three distinct phases to this scam: the “bump”; the “apology”; and the “appeal.” Here’s how it works:

While walking in an area of high-end shops, our scammer is carrying a wrapped present, which ostensibly contains an expensive vase. In truth, the present contains nothing but broken glass, which has been packaged and festively wrapped during the set-up phase of the sting.

When an appropriate mark is spied, she positions herself so that she is walking in front of him, and at a slower rate of speed. As the mark comes to a position just behind and to the side, our scammer abruptly stops and turns – forcing the mark to bump into her.

Crash! To the ground drops the present containing the “vase”. The startled mark immediately stops to help out, often reaching down to pick up the package while the hustler is bemoaning the entire unfortunate situation. Phase One has been completed.

Now the scammer starts to create a scene, loudly blaming the mark for his carelessness. The more the mark protests that perhaps it was she who was walking carelessly, the more our phony “victim” howls in protest, as she shakes a boxful of an obviously broken vase. Now what? This was a present for mum! The poor mark is caught in a most embarrassing situation; heads are starting to turn. What is he to do but apologize? And so he does, and in doing so the vise tightens on his cash. He has been maneuvered into Phase Two, and by apologizing, has admitted some fault. Our scam artist knows quite well how to exploit this inadvertent “admission.”

She’s on her way to see mum for her birthday. What is she to do now? She cannot afford another vase…how much is it, you ask? Why, its £60.

Struggle as he might, the mark is sinking deeper and deeper into the scam, and now come Phase Three, the appeal to his decency. He is asked to “be reasonable.” He is mightily embarrassed, and now he is being advised by the mark to “do the decent thing.” Finally backed into a corner from which his only escape is to flee a damsel in distress, which he will not do, he reaches into his pocket and the negotiation begins. Where does it end? Twenty pounds later? Thirty? Fifty? Whatever the final amount, our poor mark has wrongfully enriched the scammer, who will move on to her next victim.

The Lesson Learned: Can we advise you not to be a gentleman? Hardly. As is the case with so many of these scams, the set-up is so well-thought-out and the execution so well-rehearsed, that it is often not possible to extricate yourself from the clutches of a determined scammer. All we can do is try to shine a bright light on the many and varied forms these scams take, and hope that by becoming educated, we can avoid becoming victims ourselves.

The Mark: Nobody is immune, and no individual is more or less susceptible than another – with the exception of those visiting this site, that is. Armed with the lessons that shining a bright light on this hustle will teach you, you have a much better chance of avoiding this swindle.

The Scam: Our thieves have for the moment morphed into a “geek squad,” putting their technical talents to work fabricating a magnetic-strip reader. This will be fitted to a slot that will overlay the actual slot on an ATM machine. When it is in place, only careful examination will reveal that it is not an original part of the machine, but a nefarious add-on designed to steal sensitive information. The device is called a “skimmer.” Also built into this fabricated piece is a pin-hole camera, which will capture your PIN as you punch it into the keyboard.

Our scammer finds a likely cash point location, and when alone, casually performs what looks like a normal ATM transaction. But what he has really done is the equivalent of a highwayman setting up an ambush on a country road – he has installed a device that will ambush the precious information on your ATM card’s magnetic strip.

To enhance the scam, another of the hustlers will perform a transaction on the ATM directly in front of the first mark, subconsciously reinforcing in the mark’s mind that the ATM is perfectly safe and operating normally.

What happens next is predictable: a series of marks walk up to the machine and perform ordinary transactions, which the ATM handles in an ordinary way. After the device has collected and stored enough information, our original dip returns to the hijacked machine and removes the skimmer. What follows turns the improvised skimming mechanism into a cash machine in and of itself.

Back at the lair, the purloined information on the skimmer is downloaded into a PC through the use of a card reader. Then, using any card with a magnetic strip (a mobile top-up card is most popular these days), a new card is created using the stolen numbers. This is done by swiping the top-up through a reader which erases the existing information on the mag strip, and swiping again to transfer the information from the PC to the freshly-erased strip. The top-up card has now become a clone of your ATM card!

All that remains for the scammer to do is to visit a cash-point and take your money. All that remains of your savings account is dust.

The Lesson Learned: Now that you are aware of the way this scam operates, there are methods you can use to avoid becoming a victim. First, make sure you examine the machine thoroughly before you insert your card. This doesn’t need to take an hour, just a few moments to observe that all the parts of the machine are the proper color and finish; and that nothing looks like it’s sticking out awkwardly, or is otherwise disproportionate. Look for any sign of a pinhole camera, too. If anything looks wrong – walk away. Use another machine.

One final thing: a fail-safe. ALWAYS shield your PIN number. If the scammers cannot read that, all the mag strip information in the world will avail them nothing.

The Mark: Usually a male. Always a male who has not heeded advice that he has probably heard countless times before: NEVER carry your wallet in your back pocket. Remember the dips credo – out of sight, out of mind, out of pocket.

The Scam: This simple little hustle requires two hustlers; one to do the dip, and one, called the “runner” to handle the getaway. Naturally, any crowded street or public place is ideal for these scammers. In a typical shopping center situation, the runner will position himself at the top of a bank of escalators, casually reading a newspaper, while the pick-pocket will linger near the bottom waiting for an appropriate mark. Sadly, there are probably many to choose from – carelessness abounds.

Having chosen a likely target, our dip follows him onto the up escalator, which, in turn, is a signal for the runner to start down. Now for the technique: the dip first pinches the material of the mark’s jeans, which, because the wallet is between the pinch and the mark’s skin, the mark does not feel it. At the same time, using another finger, the dip pushes the wallet up till it is exposed above the top of the pocket. Because the pinch has moved the pocket away form the mark’s body, he now does not feel the push. All that remains is to time the lifting of the wallet with the passing of the runner on his way down.

When their relative positions are exactly right, the dip easily lifts the wallet the remainder of the way out of the mark’s pocket and deftly flicks it across to the down-side of the escalator. There, as you can imagine, the runner is waiting for the toss with his opened newspaper, which catches the wallet basket-style. A quick couple of folds of the paper and the wallet has disappeared, so even if the mark has sensed something…by the time he realizes that he’s been robbed, any evidence against the dip is long gone.

The Lesson Learned: The lesson to be learned here is no different than any other pickpocket lesson. If your wallet is easy for you to reach, it’s easy for him to reach. It may be slightly more uncomfortable, and slightly harder to get to, but if you carry your wallet in your front pants pocket when you leave your home, you have a much better chance of returning with it.

A proposition bet is basically “I can bet you I can do something when you bet against me that I cannot do this”. You talk about something that sounds absolutely impossible to do so most people will tell you “Well, there’s no way that can be done”. But if you turn to them and say “Yes, there is a way…” by this time they are so curious just to see how this is going to work that usually they’ll just pay a fiver (5 pounds or dollars) just to see what happens!

A proposition bet, is a great way to hustle a few free drinks in a meal. Have a look at the video!

What you should be aware of:

Well, to be honest proposition bets are not really dangerous for you or your pocket. In fact, they are funny & even though you might be the victim sometimes, as soon as you have learnt a new trick you can impress your friends!

The Mark: Any owner of a Bluetooth enabled mobile phone – if he has forgotten to disable the Bluetooth when he is not using it. As is typical, a mark is someone who is too lazy, or too careless, or too just-plain uninformed. Visitors to this site have no such excuse.

The Scam: The piece of equipment that is key to pulling off this scam is a mobile pocket PC, set up to hunt for a blue-tooth connection. Due to a flaw in many Bluetooth enabled mobile phones, a remote mobile looking for a signal can actually pick up the signal of another nearby mobile. This defect is the only crack in the armor our modern-day cons need to exploit your phone, and your wallet.

Our scammer works in any crowded public place, seemingly intent on his pocket PC, but in reality searching for a signal to blue-jack. When he finds one, he has two jobs: one is to stay in range so he can control the hijacked phone; the other is to use his PC to make a call on the hijacked line. This is where the hustler stuffs his pockets.

Prior to instituting the scam, our con men have set up a premium-rate telephone line, which will charge those who call the line £1.50 per minute of call time. So all our hustler has to do, whilst in range of the mark’s phone, is dial up the premium-rate line using the mark’s connection and keep that connection going as long as possible. Every minute that goes by makes him a little richer.

A few hours on the job can net the scammer hundreds of pounds, while the careless mark doesn’t even know he’s been had – until he receives his telephone bill. At that point, he (hopefully) learns his lesson. He may never be able to sort the whole thing out, and may spend days trying to figure out who lifted his phone and dialed these calls while he wasn’t looking.

The Lesson Learned: Like so many other scams, a little knowledge goes a long way towards preventing a rip-off. So does paying a little attention. Time after time, we marvel at the mark’s trusting nature and inability to watch his own valuable property. After perusing these scams, there is just no excuse for it. The lesson learned? Disable your Bluetooth when not in use. Couldn’t be simpler.

The Mark: Any shopkeeper or clerk can become a victim of this scam. If you handle money and operate a cash register, hustlers see you as a potential mark.

The Scam: Loaded with a pocketful of phony £20 notes, our hustler takes to the street in search of a likely mark; a clerk in a convenience store or any small shopkeeper. He casually picks up some small items at the counter – gum perhaps, or mints. But he also picks up something a bit larger, like a cheap DVD so frequently positioned right near the register as an impulse purchase.

The purchase of the DVD is a key step, because it will eventually serve to conceal the actions of the con.

Out of his right pocket, the scammer pulls a fifty; a real fifty, because it certainly will be examined by the suspicious clerk. After all, he’s been trained to spot phonies and the con expects him to check; it’s all part of the ploy to lower the clerk’s guard and gain his trust.

Whilst the clerk is making change for the fifty, likely involving two twenties and maybe a few smaller bills, our scam-artist is surreptitiously removing a pair of fake twenties from their repository in his left pocket. These phonies are then concealed in the cons left hand, hidden beneath the DVD, which is in plain sight of the counter. Notice that the con is doing nothing that the clerk can consider furtive, thereby lessening the clerk’s suspicions. When the clerk hands back the change from the fifty, the con will do something distracting, perhaps dropping his coins on the counter – anything to misdirect the clerk’s attention.

At that instant, the con is exchanging the two phony twenties for the two real twenties the clerk has just given him. This takes place beneath the DVD, which has completely obstructed the clerk’s view of the swap. Transferring the fake bills to his right hand, our scammer asks the clerk if he wouldn’t mind breaking the two twenties and would he give him four tens?

You are not shocked to learn that the clerk does NOT inspect these twenties. Their legality goes unchallenged – after all, has not the clerk himself just handed the customer these bills? So into the till go the phony twenties, and into the pocket of the scam artist go four, crisp, ill-gotten – but legal! – tenners.

The Lesson Learned: Shopkeepers and clerks, you must understand that any bill of £10 or larger that gets passed over the counter must be inspected. It matters not what you think is happening; it matters only that the status of the note be determined before it enters the till. Once a note is in a customer’s hands, and you no longer control it, do NOT trust it. Your trust could wind up costing you dearly.

The Marks: They just cannot resist this bargain. The car is so underpriced that they should have been suspicious from the outset – but greed blinds a man to reason, and they wind up with no car – and quite a bit lighter in the pocket as well.

The Scam: Our scam begins with our team of professional hustlers renting a sleek new car for a day. Quickly, they begin removing all vestiges that the car is a hire; documents come out of the glove box, rental agency tags are removed from the key chain and all decals are peeled off the body.

Bringing the car to a vacant house that they have acquired for the day, they proceed to make the house look lived in by scattering toys about and leaving a tricycle in the driveway. It is important that the marks feel a sense of permanence about the place, and there’s no better way to accomplish this than to portray the place as home to a young family.

An advertisement has been placed in the local classified, announcing that the car is for sale at an unbelievably low price, and the calls start to come in. Our female hustler, alone in the house with her non-existent baby asleep in the nursery, makes appointments with the prospective marks for them to come examine the car.

As they arrive and ring the bell, momma hustler answers the door then excuses herself to go get the keys, and picks up a baby monitor to walk out with – thereby reinforcing the idea of a stable household. A young mother, her baby asleep…and where is hubby? Why, he’s out paying the Road Tax, don’t ya know, and he has all the papers for the car with him.

When did you buy the car? Only a few months ago. Why are you selling it so cheap? My husband was just given a company car, and we want to make a quick sale. And when can I pick it up? Tonight at 6 PM.

One more thing, though.

There are a few folks coming to see the car after you leave. If you could just give me a deposit – 2 or 3 hundred pounds, maybe? - I could cancel those appointments. If not….

As is typical, the thought of getting such a great deal is too strong a pull for common sense to kick in, and our marks, a whole string of them, arriving a half hour or so apart, hand over their deposits one at a time. And what do they get for their money? Well, a receipt, for one thing. But you cannot drive a receipt, and alas, that receipt will be their only memento of this transaction.

Our young mom and her scamming compatriots leave well before the 6 PM deadline, taking the props, the toys, the trike – and the hired car – leaving the house just the way they found it: empty. Well, there is a bit of stirring when all our marks show up at 6 PM looking for the same car, and slowly, slowly, what has happened to this convention of victims dawns on each of them one by one.

The Lesson Learned: Greed is a strong motivating factor in us all. It is part of human nature, and, in moderation, is nothing to be ashamed of. But when we allow greed to cloud our better judgment, the laws of the cosmos dictate that we get what we deserve. The low price should have been a tip-off right from the beginning. But so strong was their quest for a bargain, our marks were more willing to believe any convenient story the scammer fed them than to listen to their own, good common sense. The deposit could have waited for the proper paperwork to be produced, but the marks were only too quick, and too anxious, to fork over their money. A lesson learned, indeed.

The Mark: Anyone that likes to sit down for a few hands of cards with a bit of high wagering could be a victim. If you’re not suspecting anything, and our hustlers have a deft touch, you haven’t got a chance.

The Scam: Our scammers have taken what is called a “cold deck”, and set it up so that it deals a winning hand to the player of their choice; this is done in secret, before the other players arrive. First, the hands are created, face up, around the table. The cards are carefully arranged to achieve the desired result, with certain players dealt bad cards so that they will fold, and others dealt cards just good enough to keep them in the hand and betting generously. Of course, the winning hand is reserved for one of the two scammers sitting at around the table. The cards are then restacked to achieve the desired result and placed in the possession of a female “smuggler” – this can be done with more than one deck, but not so many as to raise suspicions.

Our two scam artists play their regular brand of poker for the better part of the evening; maybe winning a bit, maybe losing a bit, but all the while angling for the fantastic run of “luck” that they know is yet to come. Our female hustler is playing a role too, most frequently as a cocktail waitress, regularly walking into the poker den with her notepad in hand to take orders. It is imperative that the players become quite comfortable with her movements in and out of the room, since she is also playing the role of the aforementioned “smuggler” – and special attention is the last thing she wants.

At a pre-ordained signal, when it is one of our scammers turn to deal, the smuggler secrets a rigged decks of cards under her notepad and enters the room.
Under the guise of taking an order, she bends over the table, and while writing busily with one hand, surreptitiously drops the rigged deck into the waiting hands of the dealer – under the table and out of sight. At the same time he is receiving the cold deck, he is pushing back his chair to create some movement, and to conceal the fact that he’s making a switch.

The bit of commotion ends, and the smuggler, having performed her task successfully, retires from the room. The dealer then proceed to use his sharp skills to make it appear as if he’s shuffling the deck, but every move he makes with the cards is offset by a counter-move which serves to bring the deck back to it’s original, stacked, configuration.

Even the cut is a well-practiced ritual. Our dealer carefully marks the spot (usually by leaving a single card ajar) where he wants his partner-in-crime to break the deck, and then calmly re-cuts it to bring the cards back to their original positions.

As play begins, our dealer quickly folds out of the action with his pre-set bad hand; as does one or two of the other marks. The scheme depends on the hand following what would appear to be a natural progression in a legitimate game of poker. Too many good hands, or too many bad hands, could well arouse suspicion – as could too many players folding or calling.

Each of the suckers left in the game continues to believe that he has an excellent chance of winning the hand, and by the time the final card is ready to be dealt, at least two of the marks feel that they are in such a favorable position that they can bet heavily.

Of course, with that final flip of a card, our scammer barely ekes out a victory over the other players unlucky enough to still be in the hand. Perhaps it’s a slightly higher straight, or flush. Or a full house with aces instead of kings up, or tens instead of nines. Or maybe a low three-of-a-kind beating two high pair. Whatever the margin, our marks find themselves out more than a few pounds, damn the luck!

But we know that luck had nothing to do with it – because our gang of well-seasoned hustlers made sure they had the deck stacked in their favor. It seemed to be a game of chance, but the marks never, ever, had one.

The Lesson Learned: Only one thing can reasonably prevent you from being the victim of The Poker Scam: know the individuals with whom you are playing. Getting involved in a game with strangers, especially a high stakes game, could put you where you never want to be – in the shoes of a mark!

The Mark: A man or woman standing in a queue at a public place, perhaps daydreaming about last weekend’s activities, tonight’s dinner, or next month’s holiday. Sadly, because our mark is not paying attention to her surroundings, it may not only cost her a purse or wallet, it may cost her dearly in time, money and aggravation. Not to mention the frustration attached to knowing she was the victim of a very preventable crime.

The Scam: Three scammers are working today’s mark, an unsuspecting woman standing in line at a bus stop. Our first hustler is directly behind the victim, wearing an overcoat against the chill, with her hands thrust firmly into her pockets. But wait – are they both really in her pockets? An examination will reveal that her coat is set up to facilitate the “dip,” since one of the arms and hands in her coat is phony, leaving her a free hand hidden safely within the coat next to her body. Done correctly, nobody will see anything unusual – our hustlers “hands” never leave the warmth of the coat pocket.

Within moments, our scammer’s sticky fingers flick unseen from inside the coat and liberate the unwatched purse from its careless position, inside a clumsily shouldered pocketbook.

Directly behind The Dip is The Handler. His job is to immediately relieve the dip of any incriminating evidence, should the mark stir from her torpor and actually realize what has been going on. However, since they are both in the queue, prudence dictates that if they want to insure that they remain undiscovered, there should be no evidence of purloined purses anywhere on their person. So into this macabre dance enters The Postman.

Hurrying along the sidewalk, apparently oblivious to those in the queue, our Postman strides purposefully along, carrying a yellow, manila envelope. The envelope is not sealed – it is intentionally left open, though it is already addressed. Without breaking stride, as The Postman passes The Handler, the purse is quickly dropped into the waiting envelope. A few steps away is the Post Box, ready to accept the loot and to insure it will be delivered quickly and safely to the gang’s lair – ironically, with all the speed and protection the government can muster.

The Lesson Learned: A watched pot never boils; so goes the old adage. It is, of course, a falsehood. But to say that a watched purse will not be stolen? Well, that may have a remarkable degree of truth to it. We have already mentioned that Job One to a scam artist is to not get caught. Any potential mark that is paying attention to his or her valuables will be passed over, as the dip will move on to easier, less challenging, prey. Never, repeat NEVER, take your purse for granted. Feel like daydreaming? Go ahead. Make a scammer’s day.

A proposition bet is basically “I can bet you I can do something when you bet against me that I cannot do this”. You talk about something that sounds absolutely impossible to do so most people will tell you “Well, there’s no way that can be done”. But if you turn to them and say “Yes, there is a way…” by this time they are so curious just to see how this is going to work that usually they’ll just pay a fiver (5 pounds or dollars) just to see what happens!

A proposition bet, is a great way to hustle a few free drinks in a meal. Have a look at the video!

What you should be aware of:

Well, to be honest proposition bets are not really dangerous for you or your pocket. In fact, they are funny & even though you might be the victim sometimes, as soon as you have learnt a new trick you can impress your friends!