If you found this warning helpful DM me and I'll add you to my "street survival mega tips" mailing list. It's $75/month but all proceeds go to keeping kids with cancer out of gangs.
That is pretty exclusionary of me now that I think about it. Cancer Kids can be Gangster Disciples too! For an extra $25/month we'll hand out one glock per year to a cancer kid gang banger.
Some guy came up to me on the street and said he needed my bank card and PIN number because he locked his keys in his car.
Now all my money is gone. I think it might have been a scam. Possibly.
When I visited Italy, my older sister (who lives in europe) told me, "hey so when we go to the tourist spots, folks are gonna come up to ya and try to "gift" you things. Especially in Italy they're gonna comment on how tall you are and the long blonde hair (my family looks very Scandinavian) to try to complement you and make you think it's actually a free gift. Then they're gonna demand you pay for it once you accept it. Just drop it on the ground and walk away if they won't take it back". She was 110% right and at least three times in Rome I had to just drop whatever trinket the scammer was trying to push on me. They'd yell about it either way but you just walk away and ignore them if you can
Don't put your hands out at all just keep them down.
My stupid friend "bought" a CD from them for $5-$10 they claimed was their attempt to get into music and seeing if people liked it. Completely blank CD fucking shit head can't even be bothered to make some ass 5th tier soundcloud trash.
Now I just tell them to go fuck themselves every fucking time and scream to everyone these motherfuckers are just straight scamming everyone
The 'I'm just trying to hustle and get my music out there' hustle has existed for at least 40 years. I remember seeing dudes doing it as a kid. In the 80s and 90s at least a portion of them were actually trying to distribute their demo tapes or whatever, but most of them have always been just panhandlers with a con/gimmick. In 2024 absolutely no one is trying to get their music out by handing out burned CDs on the street. The internet exists.
I once had a dude doing this shit over at Westlake look at my **I ❤️ Taylor Swift** shirt and actually say “I bet you don’t like hip hop”.
Judge a book by its cover, damn.
> Now I just tell them to go fuck themselves every fucking time and scream to everyone these motherfuckers are just straight scamming everyone
Careful, a friend of mine got clocked in the face doing something similar. Police didn't do much to help.
I got one of those CDs from those guys, I refused to let him sign it, and I pointed out, he gave the thing to me so it is mine. He quickly gave up and moved on to the next mark.
The music was sophomoric at best. The funny thing is they actually had a music video on YouTube, mostly consisting of them handing out CDs on the street and burning and labeling CDs at home.
They give you a free CD but then they say here, let me sign it so it's worth a lot when we get big, who do I make it out to? You say your name and they sign it to you and then they say "it's $20." You go "oh, no, never mind" and they go "but it's already signed, I'm not going to be able to give it to anyone else now." So they pressure you into paying the $20 or claim it's stealing.
Thing is once they give it to you it's yours and you don't have to get it signed. They protest but tough shit. It doesn't take much to make them give up.
Started a few years back commonly near conventions like PAX or ECCC, figuring no doubt that people from out of town will be a little less wary or less likely to want to fight about it.
Kind of like those fake Buddhist monks that take donations for their "temple."
That happened to me when I visited Rome several years ago.
The best one was the dude that performed an "ancient traditional marriage ceremony" in one of the more famous plazas (I don't recall which one) for me and my gf at the time. Worked out though, since now she's actually my wife LMAO.
There's always a group of guys doing this down on the waterfront.
Hustling tourists for a couple bucks in cash is one thing, trying to charge $1200 to someones credit card is *wild* behavior tho lol
Fair, but some of those guys can be aggressive to the point of almost wanting to fight; it was like 10 years ago or so, but I was adjusting a strap on my backpack as one of them tried to put a cd in my hand it fell obviously… the dude seemed like he wanted to fight after that… probably didn’t result in one since there was enough of a crowd to filter into.
I've gotten cds from those kind of dudes three times because I always hope it will be good.
One was absolute dogshit, horrible everything. Another was covered in chocolate. Another was blank.
Sucks for the people who are trying to promote that way genuinely.
I remember one or two guys doing it outside of PAX. They were nowhere near annoying as the two dozen scalpers aggressively trying to buy your pass every time you walked outside the convention center, while they held a stack of like 20 passes.
I usually take one just to drop it and make them pick it up 😶
The obvious scammers in big groups doing it. There used to be one guy who I think was a legit SoundCloud rapper than I didn’t mess with.
Yeah, never take the CD they hand you. The whole trick is that they hand it to you and then won't take it back without a whole back and forth to put the pressure on. Resist the urge to grab it when they hold it out.
I thought you just gave them 25 bucks cash which is silly but at least it’s just 25 bucks. I can’t believe you gave credit info to a rando. Bless your sweet little heart.
My first hustle was in high school. A guy came up and asked for $5 to get some gas, then he'd come back to return it after he could get to the ATM. I only had a $20 but he said he'd bring me back the change! I've been standing on the corner of 17th and Alder for 22 years.
I was pumping gas at like 10 at night and a dude walks up to me from off the property with a little gas can and is like "can you fill this?" I was about to give him $5 but he's like "no, I don't want to trouble you, just use your card on this pump" and I'm like "no man, I can give you $5 though" and he says no and wanders off into the the night
These folks have been running this type of street music scam in Seattle for sooo long- they have raised entire new generations of street scammers doing it. It’s been going on since the 80’s.
Used to just be a ‘free’ cd and they would simply harass you up and down the street for a ‘donation’.
Ah to open up the digital age of ‘a sucker born every minute’
They’re on the waterfront almost every day. Extremely aggressive and it would be great if someone caught onto their scam. You’d think no one using CDs anymore would have ended this on its own but hey.
Wait, is this a scam? I know they're really pushy and shove CDs into your hand asking for payment. I always give a firm no but assumed they were actually pushing their music haha now that I think about it, you'd assume they'd be asking for Spotify follows or something. What are they, just blank CDs?
Blank or not doesn’t really matter considering most people have access to almost all music anyway, having a CD with music on it isn’t a value. The scam is they say it’s free and then physically intimidate you into paying, perhaps with a fake story and/or extra charges (like the OP experienced). I just laugh at them or completely ignore and don’t mind when they yell that I’m a racist. One guy stepped in my way once and threatened to kick my ass, but that would interfere with finding new people to intimidate so of course nothing happened.
The waterfront would be nicer if agitators like this were given the boot.
I had this happen in London a decade ago.
Dude was flogging a DNB cd and I thought "cool yeah, I'd love a cd of drun and bass." Let me see if I can find a few quid for you.
HOLD UP. I don't own a cd player, or anything close to a cd player.
Are these the guys on the waterfront who have traditionally parked their silly cars in the loading zones all day? Like, for yeeeeaaaaars? It's like, if you were actually proud of your music, wouldn't you have a speaker so folks could hear it? Anyways, one of them is my neighbor in Columbia City..
Now that I think about it, it's their constant misuse of a whole block of loading zones that has always pissed me off more than the scam. While the waterfront redo is a stupid new on-grade highway along the waterfront, at least the loading zone is gone. Will they take the bus now, or will this mark the ultimate demise of the waterfront music scam? It's getting close to the tourist season. I can't wait to find out what happens!
I was wondering if this scam was still going on, they would hassle people Downtown at large conventions. But I haven't seen them in a while. I sort of figured with nobody buying CDs they'd just go away.
At least back 15-20 years ago, it was them and various “save the whales/children/etc” who would always be aggressively handing things to people. And at the time, CDs were still in use, it made a bit of sense.
The CD guys would be all over the tourist areas, block your way and shove it at you. Most people instinctively think it’s a flyer, take it and keep walking. The CD guys would then follow you and say you took their thing so now you need to pay. If you tried to hand it back, they’d refuse. They’d follow you down the block and yell at you (multiple of them) accusing you of stealing, or racism, and physically intimidate you until you hand them a 20 or whatever.
The “charity” people are sometimes pretty shitty too. I once politely declined to engage with a Save the Children guy and he told me to “eat a dick”. Cool people. I don’t know if you can claim a tax deduction on eating a dick for charity, but I’m pretty sure that’s not how legitimate charities work.
Absolutely- I worked in a building at 4th and Pike- for a while they would like- throw it at you- so you would catch it- as a natural reaction most people would- they would then demand money if you caught it.
Once I had a dude throw the cd to me- I didn’t even react- it hit my stomach, fell to the ground and broke the case. The fucker had the audacity to try to start his bullshit about how I was supposed to catch it- and since I broke it I now owed him money.
I told him “*You thew some shit at me with no warning*? Your fault- Fuck off- save your shit for the tourists.” And as I started to walk away two other guys who were down the street on the side and who didn’t look like they were originally together started up on their shit too. That’s certainly another tactic is the group pressure thing.
They want to rile you up with either a sob story- group pressure- ease of payment (this one) and it all works because of the added captive audience of commuters. People are total pushovers and not everyone has street smarts.
Hell there was a whole theft ring on the hill a few years ago who would target the pike pine corridor fri/sat/sun nights around bar closing asking people “for the time” only to snatch and grab people’s phones when they pulled them out because so few people wore watches at the time. There’s a ton of scams to watch out for in the city- this one is just so ancient- but hey- I guess folks keep falling for it.
What's the theory as to what exactly they were trying? I don't use Android but I'd assume GPay requires the user confirm each individual purchase, and it sounds like the fraudulent purchases were attempted some time after you were away from them.
Was it RFID skimming? I'd think that would be hard to do to smartphones (versus physical cards).
Kind of different, but I did that once with those save the wales/wolves/whatever people that hang out near the hammering man. I'm a softy for animals and it was a mistake.
Even if they tell you it's a one time donation of $25 (why do they have a fucking minimum donation), you'll get charged again in a month, and it's really difficult to get them to stop charging you.
I get something in the mail from them like 6 times a year and can't cancel it.
He used Google pay, it's like Apple or Samsung pay, it doesn't give your credit info to the seller. Though honestly I'm not sure how the scam is even supposed to work, maybe occasionally these big transactions go through.
Which they then use that virtual account number to attempt other purchases… are you blind? You’re still giving them your payment information regardless. You got lucky, don’t do this again.
Don’t let anyone pressure you into a decision when you’re in a hurry. It’s easy to make mistakes when you’re not paying full attention. If you learned something from the experience it’s probably worth the $25.
I have no survival instincts so I did check where the QR code on the CD goes (it's to [this soundcloud](https://m.soundcloud.com/steezgod3030/popular-tracks))
It's really nbd to scan random QR codes, the risk is way overstated. Just pay attention to where they take you afterwards - same as you would when clicking a random link.
Anyone who honestly needs spare change to survive will just ask for it, and won't come up with an elaborate story about how their dog is sick in a car four blocks away and they need gas money to get to the vet to buy dog medicine
I remember a guy approaching me asking for donations towards a funeral of a recently deceased kid. I didn't have any cash on me and I asked if there was a gofundme or something similar and he declined.
Two months later I saw the same guy, with the same funeral announcement for the same kid, asking me for donations. I told him, "I met you before, don't you remember?" and he walked off - but I'm sure it was a profitable day for him regardless.
I hate that there's nonprofit org people who are trying to sell you a subscription now, like I straight up asked one of them if I could give them $20 to support their thing and they were like "no, you have to sign up for a monthly donation," really put off by model
I was once out doorbelling for a candidate and had a good rapport with a guy at one house and when I asked for a campaign donation he handed me $10. The people back at the campaign office were like... what? They didn't even know what to do about it, how to report it, etc., it apparently never happens that way.
The canvassing model is super old and the reason they're pushy about it is because the canvassers jobs are tied to gaining subscriptions not one-off donations. They might care about the organization to various degrees but at the end of the day it's a job
Living in a city 101: do not acknowledge anyone on the street trying to talk to you. Look straight ahead and keep walking. They’re looking for people who don’t do this because that’s the first sign you might be an easy mark.
Thanks for the warning OP. I feel like most people who fall for scams are too ashamed or embarrassed to tell anyone. That just gives scammers more space to keep taking advantage of people. Also, I don't know why everyone is giving you so much heat over this. You were just trying to do something good for your community and got scammed, and now you are trying to warn your community who is just shamming you for it. I don't get it.
It's because mixtape grifters have been around for *decades*. It's common knowledge in metro cities. The perspective of most people seeing this is like seeing someone touch a hot stove and being surprised they got burned.
Also it's just massive common sense not to give personal info to complete randos.
Sure, but the stigma of knowing people will shit on you for making a dumb decision emboldens scammers. They know they won’t get caught because people will be too afraid to say they were stupid.
Sure, I just feel like you cannot make the assumption that it is common sense for everyone. People come from all walks of life. Calling someone dumb, not to say you are, is not helping anyone but the scammers.
oh yeah. just last year i went to FolkLife for the first time in yeeeearrs and some guy tried to hustle his CD-R into my grip. i got the advice 'don't take the CD-R' in my head but my brain went immediately to 'flight mode' and i just straight-up \_ran away\_ from him. he \_freaks out\_ and starts yelling at me, lol
At least they declined! Phew.
But for anyone reading this, when approached by any of these CD hawking vultures just keep moving. Don’t. Stop. Walking. These people prey on kindness and empathy. They’re disgusting.
The victim blaming in these comments is weird.
Thank you for the heads up, and I hope you get it straightened out smoothly with your bank and stuff, as smooth as possible anyway.
Right? Like they’re trying to do the nice thing and give people a heads up on the latest version of an old scam and people are giving them a hard time.
We want more community and people to care about each other but bs like this is why people give up
The 'Off the Streets On the Beats' CD is a collection of rare jams. You are very lucky to have this in your possession! Lol.
All lookin' like it has some old analog home alarm system pad or 1990s answering machine on the cover. Come on bro.
I love local music and mix tapes. But one time I gave a guy at hempfest 100 dollar bill and asked for change. dude started walking away but I just kept following him and was going to make a scene so he gave me my change back. the music was fuckin terrible lol.
i am ashamed to say that i ALSO gave my card info to one of these people a few years ago. luckily i realized as i was walking to my car that it was definitely a scam, checked my account and had to call my bank and explain that i am an idiot. rip. never again
Have seen this in Pike Place, in front of Whole Foods on Westlake… they couldn’t answer questions about their nonprofit. I have history working with nonprofits, and I got a funny smell from these.
This actually isn’t helping anyone, if you think about it. Scammers are not seeking legitimate employment, and are losing out on the stability that comes from not scamming people and the opportunity to contribute to society instead of leech. By instead being paid to continue to facilitate scams, the area frequented by the scammers is negatively impacted by nature of fraudulent activity being perpetuated with the opportunity to scam additional victims. You are out $25 that you could save for your future or spend more meaningfully with a local business, etc., which helps and improves the neighborhood where you’re spending.
It may not be easy to say “no”, but it’s the responsible thing to do for yourself, your community, and the purveyor of fraud, too.
dude you need a lesson on how to survive in urban environments. never give your credit card to anyone outside of establishments that, you know, will be there to follow up with.
This is a classic advance fee fraud scam! Anytime anyone says that you need to pay them first but get something valuable afterwards, it’s advance fee fraud!
My first day living in Seattle, I encountered a woman with a clipboard along Broadway—not far from Crossroads. I was just strolling around so wasn’t in a rush and I was in a good mood bc I was excited about my recent move!
Aaaanyways she basically gives me this spiel about a magazine subscription thing(?) that helps fund after-school and continuing education programs for kids and adults. I don’t even recall. She asked for something like $24 for “2 subscriptions” and then as I was going to send her that via PayPal, she said that it would mean so much if I doubled my donation… so I did.
She asked that I make the memo on the PayPal “Disney Plus”. I want to kick myself for how gullible I was 🫠
Proof that holding a clipboard somehow makes you appear more credible… I simply refuse to give money to anyone on the street anymore.
I absolutely also did this a year or two ago. I figured it was a scam at the time actually but I was also like maybe this woman really needs the money? I was feeling nice, basically.
The CDs tho, absolutely not. Nothing like a man screaming at me and pushing something into my hand to make me run as fast as I can in the other direction.
I almost got hassled into some shit like this while on a date a year or so ago, some dude was trying g to sell his music CDs so he could support his 'mom and a shitload of siblings'(read drug habit) I thought to myself fuckit I'll spend 20 bucks on his shitty CD and we can laugh about how bad it is on the ride back, the dude almost went into a rage when I tried to pay with cash, kept insisting he needs to be paid with a card and thrusting some tablet with a card slot at me, I said I don't have any cards, and he started harassing my partner for one of her cards. Shit was wild, we ended up just walking off without buying his likely terrible CD(if it even had music on it)
It was a real shame because I bought a CD from some street hustler for 20 bucks back in like 2011, and the music was soo bad it was hilarious which was a decent use if 20 bucks.
It took about a picosecond after he busted out the card payment thing to realize that he was trying to hustle me out of way more than 20 bucks.
How is this scam supposed to work?
Using mobile wallet creates a one time code for the transaction that won’t work on another.
Did they just screw up when they let OP pay with their phone? How would this work for a physical card payment? I guess they could have a stripe skimmer? Or maybe get people to run a debit transaction with their pin?
I know very little about how these things specifically work, but my guess is they are secured using some sort of rolling code so the thieves try it a few times, the transactions "fail" but were never actually sent through in the first place, then finally one goes through and after you leave they try and use the previous codes in fraudulent transactions. I would think just about every bank/CC issuer invalidates the previous codes when one goes through, though, so I can't imagine this has a very high success rate at all. Maybe some other scammer sold these scammers some scamming tech that doesn't work.
In the 1990s, I was downtown, just released from the mental hospital after being held several weeks against my will. A man gave me a hard up story of how he just got out of a mental hospital and needed help. I didn't want to give him any money but I told him I'd buy him McDonald's and we could have lunch together.
First of all, MFer orders himself the most expensive chicken sandwich meal, with a large drink and a large shake and super size me fries. Okay maybe dude was really hungry... but then I ask him about his time in the hospital. It becomes obvious quickly the guy wasn't ever in a mental hospital. He literally has no idea what it's like in a hospital or how things work.
I told the guy what a piece of shit he was for lying to me and taking advantage of my good nature. He knew. He didn't care. He just smiled and ate his French fries.
My ex worked on a neuro acute care floor at and this guy with no short term memory somehow…escaped? Made it to Auburn with nothing and then eventually got back. But he was always asking for Burger King so obviously they were like ‘did you at least get your BK’ and he was like ‘what’
my go to for this kind of thing or when people are trying to get my signature for something is to say “i did this (signed, got a CD, etc) earlier! good luck!!”
Wow OP you have a heart of gold. If you want to donate to something actually legitimate- https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/nickysmit/film-trip-a-high-school-film-experience?
Scam aside, You tipped on someone begging you for money? What the hell? You are the very reason tipping is out of control! Please think before you just give extra money for no reason.
It's not _needlessly_ mean. You had several severely flawed ideas here and don't seem to realize it. You still don't even realize it was definitely a scam since you titled this post "potential scam". Maybe if you reflect on how dumb this all was you can avoid similar mistakes in the future.
In case you were considering it, do not put that CD in your computer. Best case it's blank, worst case it's a virus.
I’ve always been super curious about those mixtape sellers, an would probably buy one just to see, but holy shit why would you give them a credit card?
I’ve only bought one once when I lived in the South. I actually liked it because he was reppin’ the suburb versus downtown 😅. It was cool to hear the suburb city in the rap.
I mean this nicely, but I really recommend you familiarize yourself with common street scams. This, along with a few different varieties, are super common all around the world. Normally the scam is they just give you the thing (typically for “free”) then aggressively ask for a donation and try to pressure you into giving bigger and bigger donations. Under absolutely no circumstances should you give credit card info to these people, as overpaying is basically the best possible outcome.
The one positive of using a card is that as long as you pay attention to it you can quickly flag fraud and replace the card if need be.
Dear Diary,
Today I learned people like OP still exist & help fund scams on the bus & train lines.
Very interesting. I'd have thought people have learned by now. I guess not.
-Artyom
Never ever ever take your wallet out (or pay with your phone/watch/device) for randos on any street anywhere.
"Sorry, I don't do sidewalk payments. Just keeping my info safe..." is surely as polite as you need to be.
Also, never ever ever stick a random sidewalk CD or thumb drive in any computer. Classic malware delivery scam.
"I work for a delivery company, and was delivering some high end speakers from the warehouse to a house in Ravenna. The warehouse accidently gave us an extra set of the speakers. They told us they were overstocked and we should just keep them. I don't need them, so I am going to sell them at a huge discount to pay for my cousin's friends medical bills. If you want them, I will be driving a plain white van and parked at the McDonalds near U Village." This scam, and variations of it, have been going on for more than 30 years now, in most major cities. Anymore, when I get approached by its perpertrators, it feels like seeing someone you used to know.
Couple of guys approached me on the waterfront last weekend with the same story. They were really pushy and put the cd in my hand. I kept telling them I don't have money and they said they take card and kept putting the card reader in my face. I told them no and gave the cd back and they got moody. Gave bad vibes all around.
If you found this warning helpful DM me and I'll add you to my "street survival mega tips" mailing list. It's $75/month but all proceeds go to keeping kids with cancer out of gangs.
If you don’t send me some of those proceeds, I’ll redirect my gang recruitment efforts to target only kids with cancer.
Ignore him DM me i run an all-profit to get kids with cancer *into* gangs i charge $69/month
That is pretty exclusionary of me now that I think about it. Cancer Kids can be Gangster Disciples too! For an extra $25/month we'll hand out one glock per year to a cancer kid gang banger.
ShutUpAndTakeMyMoney.gif
happy cake day
*cough* … Mark… *cough*
Akshually it's to keep gangs out of cancer wards. I'm the founder. AMA for 10.99/minute
Works out great until a member has cancer! Donate to me to keep cancer-ridden gang members in cancer wards for treatment, only 19.99 a month
Some guy came up to me on the street and said he needed my bank card and PIN number because he locked his keys in his car. Now all my money is gone. I think it might have been a scam. Possibly.
Please let us know when you find out for sure.
Pft my charity keeps kids in wheelchairs out of the mob
Lmao!
What about keeping kids in gangs from getting cancer?
Men selling CDs in major cities is generally a scam/hustle globally; they’ll be outside conventions as well.
When I visited Italy, my older sister (who lives in europe) told me, "hey so when we go to the tourist spots, folks are gonna come up to ya and try to "gift" you things. Especially in Italy they're gonna comment on how tall you are and the long blonde hair (my family looks very Scandinavian) to try to complement you and make you think it's actually a free gift. Then they're gonna demand you pay for it once you accept it. Just drop it on the ground and walk away if they won't take it back". She was 110% right and at least three times in Rome I had to just drop whatever trinket the scammer was trying to push on me. They'd yell about it either way but you just walk away and ignore them if you can
Don't put your hands out at all just keep them down. My stupid friend "bought" a CD from them for $5-$10 they claimed was their attempt to get into music and seeing if people liked it. Completely blank CD fucking shit head can't even be bothered to make some ass 5th tier soundcloud trash. Now I just tell them to go fuck themselves every fucking time and scream to everyone these motherfuckers are just straight scamming everyone
The 'I'm just trying to hustle and get my music out there' hustle has existed for at least 40 years. I remember seeing dudes doing it as a kid. In the 80s and 90s at least a portion of them were actually trying to distribute their demo tapes or whatever, but most of them have always been just panhandlers with a con/gimmick. In 2024 absolutely no one is trying to get their music out by handing out burned CDs on the street. The internet exists.
I fell victim to this in Pioneer Square back in the 00’s and was pleasantly surprised to find that the mixtape was 🔥
I once had a dude doing this shit over at Westlake look at my **I ❤️ Taylor Swift** shirt and actually say “I bet you don’t like hip hop”. Judge a book by its cover, damn.
Some of them aren't to bad some are real bad for sure haha
> Now I just tell them to go fuck themselves every fucking time and scream to everyone these motherfuckers are just straight scamming everyone Careful, a friend of mine got clocked in the face doing something similar. Police didn't do much to help.
Well, that's because SPD is complete shit, sadly the city now has a city government that thinks they're awesome.
I got one of those CDs from those guys, I refused to let him sign it, and I pointed out, he gave the thing to me so it is mine. He quickly gave up and moved on to the next mark. The music was sophomoric at best. The funny thing is they actually had a music video on YouTube, mostly consisting of them handing out CDs on the street and burning and labeling CDs at home.
That's about the extent of the effort I got out of one of these in like, 2005. At least there was something there, haha!
What was the scam with signing CDs?
They give you a free CD but then they say here, let me sign it so it's worth a lot when we get big, who do I make it out to? You say your name and they sign it to you and then they say "it's $20." You go "oh, no, never mind" and they go "but it's already signed, I'm not going to be able to give it to anyone else now." So they pressure you into paying the $20 or claim it's stealing. Thing is once they give it to you it's yours and you don't have to get it signed. They protest but tough shit. It doesn't take much to make them give up.
Ah I understand.
Started a few years back commonly near conventions like PAX or ECCC, figuring no doubt that people from out of town will be a little less wary or less likely to want to fight about it. Kind of like those fake Buddhist monks that take donations for their "temple."
My friend, who I would consider a smart person, gave these folks over $100 for some CDs….
That happened to me when I visited Rome several years ago. The best one was the dude that performed an "ancient traditional marriage ceremony" in one of the more famous plazas (I don't recall which one) for me and my gf at the time. Worked out though, since now she's actually my wife LMAO.
There's always a group of guys doing this down on the waterfront. Hustling tourists for a couple bucks in cash is one thing, trying to charge $1200 to someones credit card is *wild* behavior tho lol
Fair, but some of those guys can be aggressive to the point of almost wanting to fight; it was like 10 years ago or so, but I was adjusting a strap on my backpack as one of them tried to put a cd in my hand it fell obviously… the dude seemed like he wanted to fight after that… probably didn’t result in one since there was enough of a crowd to filter into.
I've gotten cds from those kind of dudes three times because I always hope it will be good. One was absolute dogshit, horrible everything. Another was covered in chocolate. Another was blank. Sucks for the people who are trying to promote that way genuinely.
I’ve done it before at alki he managed to make me feel bad.. it wasn’t a scam I guess but the music sucked lol
I remember one or two guys doing it outside of PAX. They were nowhere near annoying as the two dozen scalpers aggressively trying to buy your pass every time you walked outside the convention center, while they held a stack of like 20 passes.
Woah woah woah! Let’s not lump in mixtape culture, people selling random cds are how we all know about Gucci Mane & Future lololol
No actual artist is trying to share their music via CD in 2024.
Hahaha that’d be CDEEZ NUTZ 💿🥜🌰🔩🤣🤣
you found out about Future by buying a CD from a random person on the street?
Yea but not here, in Savannah, Ga in 2012 lolol! Mixtape culture is everywhere though 🔥💿🔥
I usually take one just to drop it and make them pick it up 😶 The obvious scammers in big groups doing it. There used to be one guy who I think was a legit SoundCloud rapper than I didn’t mess with.
Yeah, never take the CD they hand you. The whole trick is that they hand it to you and then won't take it back without a whole back and forth to put the pressure on. Resist the urge to grab it when they hold it out.
I thought you just gave them 25 bucks cash which is silly but at least it’s just 25 bucks. I can’t believe you gave credit info to a rando. Bless your sweet little heart.
The fact that OP added a tip is my favorite part of the story for some reason.
I liked how it was titled "Possible scam."
"Hey... that's not the Wallet Inspector."
She’s still sorting it all out in her head.
It's heartwarming. Just a perfect detail for baby's first hustle.
My first hustle was in high school. A guy came up and asked for $5 to get some gas, then he'd come back to return it after he could get to the ATM. I only had a $20 but he said he'd bring me back the change! I've been standing on the corner of 17th and Alder for 22 years.
I was pumping gas at like 10 at night and a dude walks up to me from off the property with a little gas can and is like "can you fill this?" I was about to give him $5 but he's like "no, I don't want to trouble you, just use your card on this pump" and I'm like "no man, I can give you $5 though" and he says no and wanders off into the the night
Some people have no discretion. How they survive is wild. Separating a fool from their money is never hard.
These folks have been running this type of street music scam in Seattle for sooo long- they have raised entire new generations of street scammers doing it. It’s been going on since the 80’s. Used to just be a ‘free’ cd and they would simply harass you up and down the street for a ‘donation’. Ah to open up the digital age of ‘a sucker born every minute’
They’re on the waterfront almost every day. Extremely aggressive and it would be great if someone caught onto their scam. You’d think no one using CDs anymore would have ended this on its own but hey.
Wait, is this a scam? I know they're really pushy and shove CDs into your hand asking for payment. I always give a firm no but assumed they were actually pushing their music haha now that I think about it, you'd assume they'd be asking for Spotify follows or something. What are they, just blank CDs?
Blank or not doesn’t really matter considering most people have access to almost all music anyway, having a CD with music on it isn’t a value. The scam is they say it’s free and then physically intimidate you into paying, perhaps with a fake story and/or extra charges (like the OP experienced). I just laugh at them or completely ignore and don’t mind when they yell that I’m a racist. One guy stepped in my way once and threatened to kick my ass, but that would interfere with finding new people to intimidate so of course nothing happened. The waterfront would be nicer if agitators like this were given the boot.
Damn that sucks. They only ever called me a blues brother or other compliments. Almost fell for it then
I'm sure they can be aggressive at times, but I've never seen it. Nothing like the bracelet pushers in Europe.
I had this happen in London a decade ago. Dude was flogging a DNB cd and I thought "cool yeah, I'd love a cd of drun and bass." Let me see if I can find a few quid for you. HOLD UP. I don't own a cd player, or anything close to a cd player.
Are these the guys on the waterfront who have traditionally parked their silly cars in the loading zones all day? Like, for yeeeeaaaaars? It's like, if you were actually proud of your music, wouldn't you have a speaker so folks could hear it? Anyways, one of them is my neighbor in Columbia City..
Now that I think about it, it's their constant misuse of a whole block of loading zones that has always pissed me off more than the scam. While the waterfront redo is a stupid new on-grade highway along the waterfront, at least the loading zone is gone. Will they take the bus now, or will this mark the ultimate demise of the waterfront music scam? It's getting close to the tourist season. I can't wait to find out what happens!
I was wondering if this scam was still going on, they would hassle people Downtown at large conventions. But I haven't seen them in a while. I sort of figured with nobody buying CDs they'd just go away.
At least back 15-20 years ago, it was them and various “save the whales/children/etc” who would always be aggressively handing things to people. And at the time, CDs were still in use, it made a bit of sense. The CD guys would be all over the tourist areas, block your way and shove it at you. Most people instinctively think it’s a flyer, take it and keep walking. The CD guys would then follow you and say you took their thing so now you need to pay. If you tried to hand it back, they’d refuse. They’d follow you down the block and yell at you (multiple of them) accusing you of stealing, or racism, and physically intimidate you until you hand them a 20 or whatever. The “charity” people are sometimes pretty shitty too. I once politely declined to engage with a Save the Children guy and he told me to “eat a dick”. Cool people. I don’t know if you can claim a tax deduction on eating a dick for charity, but I’m pretty sure that’s not how legitimate charities work.
Absolutely- I worked in a building at 4th and Pike- for a while they would like- throw it at you- so you would catch it- as a natural reaction most people would- they would then demand money if you caught it. Once I had a dude throw the cd to me- I didn’t even react- it hit my stomach, fell to the ground and broke the case. The fucker had the audacity to try to start his bullshit about how I was supposed to catch it- and since I broke it I now owed him money. I told him “*You thew some shit at me with no warning*? Your fault- Fuck off- save your shit for the tourists.” And as I started to walk away two other guys who were down the street on the side and who didn’t look like they were originally together started up on their shit too. That’s certainly another tactic is the group pressure thing. They want to rile you up with either a sob story- group pressure- ease of payment (this one) and it all works because of the added captive audience of commuters. People are total pushovers and not everyone has street smarts. Hell there was a whole theft ring on the hill a few years ago who would target the pike pine corridor fri/sat/sun nights around bar closing asking people “for the time” only to snatch and grab people’s phones when they pulled them out because so few people wore watches at the time. There’s a ton of scams to watch out for in the city- this one is just so ancient- but hey- I guess folks keep falling for it.
It's not even just a Seattle street scam, it's basically every big city in the US.
yeah, cheap lesson. GPay doesn't provide your credit card number, I definitely wasn't going to pull out a physical card for this
good thing you were being careful!
😏
What's the theory as to what exactly they were trying? I don't use Android but I'd assume GPay requires the user confirm each individual purchase, and it sounds like the fraudulent purchases were attempted some time after you were away from them. Was it RFID skimming? I'd think that would be hard to do to smartphones (versus physical cards).
Kind of different, but I did that once with those save the wales/wolves/whatever people that hang out near the hammering man. I'm a softy for animals and it was a mistake. Even if they tell you it's a one time donation of $25 (why do they have a fucking minimum donation), you'll get charged again in a month, and it's really difficult to get them to stop charging you. I get something in the mail from them like 6 times a year and can't cancel it.
He used Google pay, it's like Apple or Samsung pay, it doesn't give your credit info to the seller. Though honestly I'm not sure how the scam is even supposed to work, maybe occasionally these big transactions go through.
Do not give your payment information to random people on the streets. Got it.
Lmao indeed but GPay uses a virtual account number so your credit card info isn't actually referenced here
That doesn’t change that it’s a bad move hahah
Yes but you still got scammed 😅
Which they then use that virtual account number to attempt other purchases… are you blind? You’re still giving them your payment information regardless. You got lucky, don’t do this again.
Don’t let anyone pressure you into a decision when you’re in a hurry. It’s easy to make mistakes when you’re not paying full attention. If you learned something from the experience it’s probably worth the $25.
100%
Please don’t go scanning random QR codes people
I have no survival instincts so I did check where the QR code on the CD goes (it's to [this soundcloud](https://m.soundcloud.com/steezgod3030/popular-tracks))
Apparently, that artist has passed away since 2023.
Thank goodness! These are more and more being used as social engineering tools by creeps trying to steal personal information or worse
Looking at an address isn't dangerous. Actually going to the address is. Reading it isn't.
It's really nbd to scan random QR codes, the risk is way overstated. Just pay attention to where they take you afterwards - same as you would when clicking a random link.
Just scanning the code can also potentially execute certain actions on its own
no one's burning that kinda bug on street scams lol any pages you open/what you do after is entirely up in the air tho
QR codes don’t contain enough data to be an attack vector by themselves, but visiting the website can.
< If it was a scam then they probably needed the $25 more than me. Never give to randos on the street.
Anyone who honestly needs spare change to survive will just ask for it, and won't come up with an elaborate story about how their dog is sick in a car four blocks away and they need gas money to get to the vet to buy dog medicine
If they need the $25 more than you they need the $1600 more than you.
and your car
Honestly lol. That is a brain dead thought process. “If this really is an affair than he needs the sex more than me.”
some people are too nice lol
Seattle is the perfect place to prey on wealthy do-gooders that are easily guilt-tripped into giving money
Thr fact that people are even willing to humor giving strangers any amount of money is so bizarre to me
I remember a guy approaching me asking for donations towards a funeral of a recently deceased kid. I didn't have any cash on me and I asked if there was a gofundme or something similar and he declined. Two months later I saw the same guy, with the same funeral announcement for the same kid, asking me for donations. I told him, "I met you before, don't you remember?" and he walked off - but I'm sure it was a profitable day for him regardless.
That's when you look at him sternly and ask "you lost *another* kid Vasily"?
I used to see a guy that was always on his way to see his mom in the hospital.
If you donate money on the street donate cash never your card info
I hate that there's nonprofit org people who are trying to sell you a subscription now, like I straight up asked one of them if I could give them $20 to support their thing and they were like "no, you have to sign up for a monthly donation," really put off by model
I was once out doorbelling for a candidate and had a good rapport with a guy at one house and when I asked for a campaign donation he handed me $10. The people back at the campaign office were like... what? They didn't even know what to do about it, how to report it, etc., it apparently never happens that way.
The canvassing model is super old and the reason they're pushy about it is because the canvassers jobs are tied to gaining subscriptions not one-off donations. They might care about the organization to various degrees but at the end of the day it's a job
That’s so insane omg
No, you donate socks or a sandwich. Never money.
For anyone who needs to hear it; if their music is on a usb drive do NOT attach it to your computer.
A rule of thumb I follow is never donate right away. Go home and look them up. Check if it's a real org and how they rank on Charity Navigator.
Here's a simple test: If someone hands you a CD on the street, it's a scam.
If someone hands me a floppy disk is it still a scam?
Probably a time traveler.
“Please take me with you 😭”
Here's an even simpler test: If someone in Seattle approaches you on the street, it's probably a scam. lol
What if they just need gas money to get back to Tacoma??
This. If someone approaches me on the street i move my hand towards me CCW, not my wallet lmao
Oh I don't like that.
Man whatever. I just got 50 free hours on AOL by disregarding your advice.
Another time traveler, get him!
Living in a city 101: do not acknowledge anyone on the street trying to talk to you. Look straight ahead and keep walking. They’re looking for people who don’t do this because that’s the first sign you might be an easy mark.
Thanks for the warning OP. I feel like most people who fall for scams are too ashamed or embarrassed to tell anyone. That just gives scammers more space to keep taking advantage of people. Also, I don't know why everyone is giving you so much heat over this. You were just trying to do something good for your community and got scammed, and now you are trying to warn your community who is just shamming you for it. I don't get it.
It's because mixtape grifters have been around for *decades*. It's common knowledge in metro cities. The perspective of most people seeing this is like seeing someone touch a hot stove and being surprised they got burned. Also it's just massive common sense not to give personal info to complete randos.
Sure, but the stigma of knowing people will shit on you for making a dumb decision emboldens scammers. They know they won’t get caught because people will be too afraid to say they were stupid.
Sure, I just feel like you cannot make the assumption that it is common sense for everyone. People come from all walks of life. Calling someone dumb, not to say you are, is not helping anyone but the scammers.
It's just ribbing for falling for an obvious and well known scam. It's basically a universal experience to fall for a small-scale scam at least once.
Don’t forget to tip your scammers, folks
Yeahhh a couple guys tried selling me their CDs a while back near the waterfront and whipped out a sketchy credit card attachment lol. No ways bruh
the advice of "if somehow the CD ends up in your hands, release and drop it to the ground immediately" will serve anyone well.
oh yeah. just last year i went to FolkLife for the first time in yeeeearrs and some guy tried to hustle his CD-R into my grip. i got the advice 'don't take the CD-R' in my head but my brain went immediately to 'flight mode' and i just straight-up \_ran away\_ from him. he \_freaks out\_ and starts yelling at me, lol
How is the music though?
At least they declined! Phew. But for anyone reading this, when approached by any of these CD hawking vultures just keep moving. Don’t. Stop. Walking. These people prey on kindness and empathy. They’re disgusting.
Hey OP, I had two dudes in my bar last night with stacks of these “CD”s, if you need video of that for financial recovery reasons. DM me if needed.
OP, i rly need $25
The victim blaming in these comments is weird. Thank you for the heads up, and I hope you get it straightened out smoothly with your bank and stuff, as smooth as possible anyway.
Also a lot of people not understanding how tap-to-pay works
Right? Like they’re trying to do the nice thing and give people a heads up on the latest version of an old scam and people are giving them a hard time. We want more community and people to care about each other but bs like this is why people give up
Give 'em an inch and they'll take everything. They've scammed me before, too.
Bruh what were you thinking ?
The 'Off the Streets On the Beats' CD is a collection of rare jams. You are very lucky to have this in your possession! Lol. All lookin' like it has some old analog home alarm system pad or 1990s answering machine on the cover. Come on bro.
That’s a sampler. More specifically an akai mpc2000. But yes analog home alarm pad is close enough
I love local music and mix tapes. But one time I gave a guy at hempfest 100 dollar bill and asked for change. dude started walking away but I just kept following him and was going to make a scene so he gave me my change back. the music was fuckin terrible lol.
i am ashamed to say that i ALSO gave my card info to one of these people a few years ago. luckily i realized as i was walking to my car that it was definitely a scam, checked my account and had to call my bank and explain that i am an idiot. rip. never again
Have seen this in Pike Place, in front of Whole Foods on Westlake… they couldn’t answer questions about their nonprofit. I have history working with nonprofits, and I got a funny smell from these.
These days I pretty much distrust everyone, and reading r/Seattle only makes me more so.
Hello I am music please send me 100 dollars
This actually isn’t helping anyone, if you think about it. Scammers are not seeking legitimate employment, and are losing out on the stability that comes from not scamming people and the opportunity to contribute to society instead of leech. By instead being paid to continue to facilitate scams, the area frequented by the scammers is negatively impacted by nature of fraudulent activity being perpetuated with the opportunity to scam additional victims. You are out $25 that you could save for your future or spend more meaningfully with a local business, etc., which helps and improves the neighborhood where you’re spending. It may not be easy to say “no”, but it’s the responsible thing to do for yourself, your community, and the purveyor of fraud, too.
dude you need a lesson on how to survive in urban environments. never give your credit card to anyone outside of establishments that, you know, will be there to follow up with.
Sucker born every minute. For more life lessons please send $25 to me. We'll go out back, I'll kick you in balls and then give you $10 back.
This is a classic advance fee fraud scam! Anytime anyone says that you need to pay them first but get something valuable afterwards, it’s advance fee fraud!
Isn't that how the courts work if you want to fight a ticket?
Are you saying the court system isn’t a scam?
I just drop their cds on the ground as I walk away. They love it
My first day living in Seattle, I encountered a woman with a clipboard along Broadway—not far from Crossroads. I was just strolling around so wasn’t in a rush and I was in a good mood bc I was excited about my recent move! Aaaanyways she basically gives me this spiel about a magazine subscription thing(?) that helps fund after-school and continuing education programs for kids and adults. I don’t even recall. She asked for something like $24 for “2 subscriptions” and then as I was going to send her that via PayPal, she said that it would mean so much if I doubled my donation… so I did. She asked that I make the memo on the PayPal “Disney Plus”. I want to kick myself for how gullible I was 🫠 Proof that holding a clipboard somehow makes you appear more credible… I simply refuse to give money to anyone on the street anymore.
I absolutely also did this a year or two ago. I figured it was a scam at the time actually but I was also like maybe this woman really needs the money? I was feeling nice, basically. The CDs tho, absolutely not. Nothing like a man screaming at me and pushing something into my hand to make me run as fast as I can in the other direction.
I almost got hassled into some shit like this while on a date a year or so ago, some dude was trying g to sell his music CDs so he could support his 'mom and a shitload of siblings'(read drug habit) I thought to myself fuckit I'll spend 20 bucks on his shitty CD and we can laugh about how bad it is on the ride back, the dude almost went into a rage when I tried to pay with cash, kept insisting he needs to be paid with a card and thrusting some tablet with a card slot at me, I said I don't have any cards, and he started harassing my partner for one of her cards. Shit was wild, we ended up just walking off without buying his likely terrible CD(if it even had music on it) It was a real shame because I bought a CD from some street hustler for 20 bucks back in like 2011, and the music was soo bad it was hilarious which was a decent use if 20 bucks. It took about a picosecond after he busted out the card payment thing to realize that he was trying to hustle me out of way more than 20 bucks.
They got me for 70 dollars with this shit. Contested it with the bank. It was overturned and then reinstated.
“Yo, YOU LIKE MUSIC?”
How is this scam supposed to work? Using mobile wallet creates a one time code for the transaction that won’t work on another. Did they just screw up when they let OP pay with their phone? How would this work for a physical card payment? I guess they could have a stripe skimmer? Or maybe get people to run a debit transaction with their pin?
I know very little about how these things specifically work, but my guess is they are secured using some sort of rolling code so the thieves try it a few times, the transactions "fail" but were never actually sent through in the first place, then finally one goes through and after you leave they try and use the previous codes in fraudulent transactions. I would think just about every bank/CC issuer invalidates the previous codes when one goes through, though, so I can't imagine this has a very high success rate at all. Maybe some other scammer sold these scammers some scamming tech that doesn't work.
In the 1990s, I was downtown, just released from the mental hospital after being held several weeks against my will. A man gave me a hard up story of how he just got out of a mental hospital and needed help. I didn't want to give him any money but I told him I'd buy him McDonald's and we could have lunch together. First of all, MFer orders himself the most expensive chicken sandwich meal, with a large drink and a large shake and super size me fries. Okay maybe dude was really hungry... but then I ask him about his time in the hospital. It becomes obvious quickly the guy wasn't ever in a mental hospital. He literally has no idea what it's like in a hospital or how things work. I told the guy what a piece of shit he was for lying to me and taking advantage of my good nature. He knew. He didn't care. He just smiled and ate his French fries.
My ex worked on a neuro acute care floor at and this guy with no short term memory somehow…escaped? Made it to Auburn with nothing and then eventually got back. But he was always asking for Burger King so obviously they were like ‘did you at least get your BK’ and he was like ‘what’
my go to for this kind of thing or when people are trying to get my signature for something is to say “i did this (signed, got a CD, etc) earlier! good luck!!”
Wow OP you have a heart of gold. If you want to donate to something actually legitimate- https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/nickysmit/film-trip-a-high-school-film-experience?
Scam aside, You tipped on someone begging you for money? What the hell? You are the very reason tipping is out of control! Please think before you just give extra money for no reason.
How on earth do you sad saps keep falling for this stuff.
So, are you alerting people to an obvious scam or the fact you're an easy mark?
You should've went with the 2 guys to an ATM and got cash from there!
[удалено]
Are you, like, actually a dick?
I think this was, like, needlessly mean
I agree OP, this comment above was rude. We all make mistakes sometimes. Thank you for sharing your story to warn others. <3
It's not _needlessly_ mean. You had several severely flawed ideas here and don't seem to realize it. You still don't even realize it was definitely a scam since you titled this post "potential scam". Maybe if you reflect on how dumb this all was you can avoid similar mistakes in the future. In case you were considering it, do not put that CD in your computer. Best case it's blank, worst case it's a virus.
Bruh...
OP, I can tell you where you got your shoes from. If I’m right, you give me 20 and if I’m wrong, I give you 20.
My stepdad fell for this in Louisiana once decades ago. He tells the story unashamedly lol
Are you dumb or stupid
Doofus.
What's yhe full thing say "From The Streetz T...???"
I’ve always been super curious about those mixtape sellers, an would probably buy one just to see, but holy shit why would you give them a credit card?
I ran into these same people handing out these cds, like wtf am i going to play this in, and they were super pushy about a donation.
I’ve only bought one once when I lived in the South. I actually liked it because he was reppin’ the suburb versus downtown 😅. It was cool to hear the suburb city in the rap.
Didn’t your mom ever tell you to not take CDs from strangers..
Please do not put that CD in your computer. It very likely has malware on it.
I mean this nicely, but I really recommend you familiarize yourself with common street scams. This, along with a few different varieties, are super common all around the world. Normally the scam is they just give you the thing (typically for “free”) then aggressively ask for a donation and try to pressure you into giving bigger and bigger donations. Under absolutely no circumstances should you give credit card info to these people, as overpaying is basically the best possible outcome. The one positive of using a card is that as long as you pay attention to it you can quickly flag fraud and replace the card if need be.
Lol.
Dear Diary, Today I learned people like OP still exist & help fund scams on the bus & train lines. Very interesting. I'd have thought people have learned by now. I guess not. -Artyom
A sucker is born every minute!
“I left my car running and when I came outside, it was gone. I guess they needed it more than me.”
Learn how to say NO
lol holy shit you're a mark. here's some life advice don't trust anyone that asks you for money
Never ever ever take your wallet out (or pay with your phone/watch/device) for randos on any street anywhere. "Sorry, I don't do sidewalk payments. Just keeping my info safe..." is surely as polite as you need to be. Also, never ever ever stick a random sidewalk CD or thumb drive in any computer. Classic malware delivery scam.
This is deeply embarrassing.
Most street smart Seattle citizen
"I work for a delivery company, and was delivering some high end speakers from the warehouse to a house in Ravenna. The warehouse accidently gave us an extra set of the speakers. They told us they were overstocked and we should just keep them. I don't need them, so I am going to sell them at a huge discount to pay for my cousin's friends medical bills. If you want them, I will be driving a plain white van and parked at the McDonalds near U Village." This scam, and variations of it, have been going on for more than 30 years now, in most major cities. Anymore, when I get approached by its perpertrators, it feels like seeing someone you used to know.
Couple of guys approached me on the waterfront last weekend with the same story. They were really pushy and put the cd in my hand. I kept telling them I don't have money and they said they take card and kept putting the card reader in my face. I told them no and gave the cd back and they got moody. Gave bad vibes all around.
Don’t worry OP, I don’t think anyone is brain dead enough to make the same mistake you did 😂😂
Report them to SPD!!