I Got Scammed!

I'm on my way to a hardware store last night, walking down the street, and an SUV with two guys stops. The driver has an Italian accent and asks me the way to the Belt Parkway, he says they've got to catch a flight out of Kennedy to Italy in a little while. I point him in the general direction, and he then tells me that he works for Armani, that he was in New York for a clothing show at the Javits Convention Center, he has some extra high-ticket jackets that would fit me, and I could have them because he'd rather not pay tax for them at the airport. He did a lot of other fast talking, gave me a business card and said to call him anytime I decided to come to Italy. The other guy isn't saying anything, I tried asking him something but he said he didn't speak English. So, the driver gets out of the vehicle and shows me some jackets in plastic bags, in the back seat and points out the logo and tag, which read "EA Collection Italy". He puts three of them in a shopping bag and hands them to me, then says that he needs to get an IPad, and that he's got another really good jacket worth two thousand bucks, but that he'll need three hundred bucks for all the merchandise. I knew something wasn't right about this, but the stuff looked pretty good and I told him I’d take one jacket for 40 bucks. This didn't go over very well, and he asked me again if I could get three hundred bucks from home. I declined again, so he asked for fifty, I said forty again, which he agreed to and I left with a black jacket that was supposed to be leather. When I got it home and took it out of the plastic bag it was in, it was fake leather which smelled like the center of the Chinese PVC Universe, lol. I tossed it in the garbage and went online to find out that this has been going on for several years, with apparently numerous people pulling it off, and some people getting ripped off for many hundreds of dollars, even a thousand. Of course, this has got to be a big operation, because one guy couldn't be in this many places. I also highly doubt that a single one of them is from Italy, but they somehow learned how to sound pretty convincing.

Here's a scam report on this, with many other similar victims' stories, many got taken for a lot more:

Scam Report - Italian Guy Giovanni, Emporior Armani, EA Collection leather Jackets Italian Guy Who Asks for direction to Lincoln Tunnels with New Jersey Plate Numbe

 

Yeah, I'm not upset in fact it was a lesson learned - and I had over 200 bucks in my wallet so they only got a fraction of it. I've been approached by all kinds of scammers in the streets since I was young, ranging from the old Jamaican Switch (variations can be found on google), to guys who say that their car is broke down with their little daughter in it a few blocks away, and they need money for gas or to fix something - and I always call them on it. This scam is about the only one of it's type that I've ever fallen for - and it seems there's lots of others out there who have as well. It's an amazingly good routine, and would be very hard for the law to prosecute because like most con games it's your word against theirs.

 

They're very, very well trained - they don't come off like they're out to sell you something, they act very appreciative for directions, lead you to believe that you're helping them, and the next thing you know you're stuck with a plastic jacket, or several, and a reduction of your cash.

More stories from another site:

Italian-guy | Ripoff Report | Complaints Reviews Scams Lawsuits Frauds Reported

 

I found one of these jackets on E bay. At least the seller admits it's fake leather - he probably got scammed for it as well. These items should not be resold, they're made of PVC, are very unhealthy, and should be discarded.

EA Collection Italy Style Black Faux Leather Men's Jacket Size L | eBay