Upon reading the rather long thread re: the blonde woman I realised that Sheffield has an army of lieing scroungers. Last time the blonde woman came up to me 'excuse me please' i just told her to go away and she then said 'I can't believe some people in this town'. Rediculous.
But she isn't the only one praying on peoples good intentions and goodwill.
There's the guy who needs money for a train to get to his parole officer.
The woman that needs a bus fare.
The woman that needs money for the phone.
The guy selling 'erb. I call him Herbie.
The guy that got robbed by the taxi driver.

And many more scagheads.

Same old story each time, so post 'em all here so we can all be aware of them.

They are organised as well I used to live above the pharmacy on london road and there's this Black guy who goes into the pharmacy (with fake perscriptions one presumes) an the he gives out diazapam anoungst other things (I saw the box when they littered it on the ground) to a group of familiar faces (yes some of the hoaxers in town) and then tells them where they are working tonight.

Maybe the police can target the organised part of it?

nobody got any more hoaxers to talk about?

Not a hoaxer but i bumped in to the son of a man i knew when i lived on the Manor. I was in the fish market and he came up to me and started giving me a well rehearsed 'speech'. When he recognised me, he soon backtracked and tried to play on his dad's friendship with me. The only reason i did'nt slap him is because i like his dad.
This lad is called Paul. His name is tattooed on his hand. He is approx 6' tall. He has brown hair, but usually wears a cap. He has thick set eyebrows and is reletively slim these days.

I bumped in to him in the chippy on Manor top a couple of days ago. He was pi**ed as a skunk.

I really hope his dad does'nt read this because he is one the friendliest blokes i have had the pleasure of knowing.

Then there's the woman who's always coming up to me hassling for money to buy clothes, food, pay the mortage etc. Honestly, she never gives up. She's really getting on my nerves.

Hang on, that's the wife, isn't it!

I've bumped into the guy who needs a train fare to leeds to get to his parole officer. I've met him once about two years ago.

I've also met many many times the infamous woman in blue with blonde hair who asks for money. I've bumped into her so many times that I've lost count.

There's a scary guy (about 20, with short hair, bad teeth, a white t-shirt and gold earring) who hangs around in the dark spot behind the city hall tramstop (inbound) and asks for money. He gets quite threatening if you don't give him anything. I've bumped into him twice.

Originally posted by ptigga
I've bumped into the guy who needs a train fare to leeds to get to his parole officer. I've met him once about two years ago.


I've bumped into him 3-4 times,all in the space of about a month. Think that would have been about 2 years ago as well.

my boyf and I gave money to the ginger/ southern accent knows manchester/ parole man bloke in botanical gardens, felt really stupid when we watched him then go down eccy road asking other people!

I got him back a few months later, he was giving his speal to an old couple who looked half frightened to death in the town centre so I walked up to them and asked him if had manged to get to his parole officer yet as it seemed odd he was giving the same story, he just walked off and I think the old couple were quite relieved.

Really it was a silly thing to do as for all I know he could of turned nasty!

Don't give him money then he might bugger off to somewhere else instead! ( this happened about a year and a half ago and I've not seem him around anymore)

The real question is why aren't the police and council doing somthing about these people? An ASBO banning them from the city centre on pain of arrest would be a good starting point.

There's a blonde woman who has approached me maybe 20 times over the last 10 or 12 yrs. She keeps coming up to me and saying in a rather polite tone:
Excuse me, I dont know if you can tell but I'm pregnant. I live on the streets and I wondered if you could spare some change for a cup of tea.
Well I fell for it twice then realised she was perpetually 4/5 months pregnant. When I said no and said she had tried this before and it must be an imaginary baby I got shouted at by some bloke near by. I'm guessing he's her partner or boss or something.
Don't fall for it, it's either a rolled up jumper or she could stand to lose a few pounds. Either that or she gives birth to seriously premature babies twice a year and I doubt that very much.

First of all there is the woman with blonde hair and is slightly overweight, she has a child in a pram. She very nicely asks for money for the phone, cos she needs to phone her bloke so he can come and pick her and child up, i said no, as i'd already seen her ask about 5 people and how much does it cost to use a pay phone anyway? even when phoning a mobile its not that expensive! anyway she was rather rude back to me when i said no, then as i was watching her walk away she pulled out a nice new mobile phone and used it!

Then there is the guy who needs bus fare to get to rotherham (he's probably already been mentioned), he only has a certain amount of money on him and cleverly shows you the coinage. He was very polite, and i said no i didn't have any change, he was very polite back, but instead of just walking away he carried on with his sob story for a good ten minutes as i was walking to work, this i must say really worried me, he only stopped talking to me when he realised i was still not going to give him any money, he then selected someone else who he considered an easy target. This was on west street just near the uni tram stop, and the two students he stopped did give him money.
I have seen him up to this trick on more than occasion, i have also seen him drugged up to the eye balls. Which is probably why he wants our money.

To add to this I wish someone could stop these people hanging around and sitting next to cash machines. It really makes me nervous, and should be in some way illegal!

there's a guy who always needs to get the bus to see somebody (maybe parole officer guy), who wears a brown/grey puffa jacket and has a scratty little beard. Once followed me from the train station to Barkers Pool, and when i said i had no change suggested we go to a cash machine to get him some money!

The way to stop this happening is to stop giving money to people on the street.

If you want to help either get involved in a charity or give money to a charity or offer them food or drink. Talking about ASBOs is all very well, but generally we should not have to rely on the police force to solve all our problems.

It tells you something interesting about our attitude to poverty that beggers will think it is a better idea to say that they have lost their bus/train fare than to say that they are desperate to be helped. (that applies whether you think they are genuine or not)

The things you see when you don't have a gun!

Been robbed ?
Lost purse/wallet/train ticket and cant get home


Go to the local cop shop - they have plans in place to deal with all of these.

Anyone coming out with any of the above is USUALLY a scammer....I say usually as there is always one out of every 100 thats genuine, and if thats the case, they wont mind the practical advice.

there's a guy who always needs to get the bus to see somebody (maybe parole officer guy), who wears a brown/grey puffa jacket and has a scratty little beard. Once followed me from the train station to Barkers Pool, and when i said i had no change suggested we go to a cash machine to get him some money!

Yes, this is parole officer guy. I had the misfortune of talking to him a few weeks ago. He suggested the cash machine thing to me too. Funny thing is, when he first came to talk to me I said don't ask me for any cash...he then became quite annoyed after 10 minutes of bull**** story when I reminded him about this :hihi:

Last week I was going into T J Hughes Department Store on the High Street when I was approached by a young woman in denims with short blonde hair who told me that her car had broken down in Hillsborough and could I spare some change, she wasn't too disappointed when I said no and moved on to the next person. So be on the look out for her in the city centre.

The same woman came up to a group of us on London Road, when we were coming out of a restaurant, with the story about her car breaking down and needing to get back home etc etc.. Its a great shame because if somebody really was in trouble, they would just be laughed at.

Wouldn't it be nice if, just once, one of them came up to you and said "look, I'm busting for a pint of lager and I'm skint, I would ask you to lend me the money but I'll probably never see you again, so if you can give me 3 quid I'll get a pint of lager and you'll have done your good deed for the day."
How would you react to a bit of honesty like that?

Wouldn't it be nice if, just once, one of them came up to you and said "look, I'm busting for a pint of lager and I'm skint, I would ask you to lend me the money but I'll probably never see you again, so if you can give me 3 quid I'll get a pint of lager and you'll have done your good deed for the day."
How would you react to a bit of honesty like that?

Ha! I'd say 'fair play mate' and give him £3! LOL! :hihi:

Seriously though, best thing to do when you come across one of these scroungers is stand there in front of them and call the police (not on 999). The police do try to stop them, I've seen them doing it and they also put out leaflets in the areas most affected by these scrubbers. Call the police in front of them and my moeny says (as well as staying in MY pocket) that they jog on sharpish.

Wouldn't it be nice if, just once, one of them came up to you and said "look, I'm busting for a pint of lager and I'm skint, I would ask you to lend me the money but I'll probably never see you again, so if you can give me 3 quid I'll get a pint of lager and you'll have done your good deed for the day."
How would you react to a bit of honesty like that?

Well........ I would say no its hard enough for me to survive myself (I can't afford to smoke or drink myself, why should I help them to?) without supporting your habit! smile sweetly then walk away.

Three of us walking through Waitrose carpark on Monday night were approached by a classic low-life. "Could you help us out with a few quid for some crack?" was his pitch. Fairly straight and to the point I guess. We walked on, he followed and told us three or four jokes - the mods might intervene if I print them here - but they were funny enough. Then he gave up and chucked a couple of expletives as parting shots. We didn't give him anything and felt nicely smug about our small contribution to saving him from his private drug hell and the knock on effects on our morally bankrupt post-modern consumer society - we all must do our bit. Funny thing though, talking about it later, we thought his pitch was probably worth a quid or two.

How about off-street hoaxers?

Be wary if you want to park your car near The Arena when going to an event and see signs offering parking next to the KFC. The companies that own that car park do not sell spaces, but some hoaxer has often been known to, often taking £'00s in a night.

The scary thing is that of course he does not know the password to raise the barrier to get out, but by the time your show has finished he will be long gone, and you'll be on the bus!

(In fact if anybody is trying to sell parking spaces in what looks like a company parking area and it has a barrier, it might be prudent to inform the cash collecter that you work there. If he doesn't do a runner you know it's legit.)

Was inBroomhall yesterday on a break from work, and some darkhaired smackhead cam up to me and started telling me jokes. After the first 2, he said, "Are you racist", I said no, but he still proceeded to tell me a racist joke!

Then he said "got a spare cig mate", I said I didn't smoke (forgetting I had a fag in my hand), then he got all arsey claiming I was stuck up, and tight fisted. Tool.

Three of us walking through Waitrose carpark on Monday night were approached by a classic low-life. "Could you help us out with a few quid for some crack?" was his pitch. Fairly straight and to the point I guess. We walked on, he followed and told us three or four jokes - the mods might intervene if I print them here - but they were funny enough. Then he gave up and chucked a couple of expletives as parting shots. We didn't give him anything and felt nicely smug about our small contribution to saving him from his private drug hell and the knock on effects on our morally bankrupt post-modern consumer society - we all must do our bit. Funny thing though, talking about it later, we thought his pitch was probably worth a quid or two.


Must be the same guy, did he have dark hair?

Was one of his jokes about masturbation?

I got stopped by two new scammers who I'd not seen before a few weeks ago on the Moor. One of them did all the talking and said that they were on parole, needed to get a train back to somewhere (maybe Nottingham?), if they missed it they'd be arrested and then asked for money.

He said his mate had Huntingdon's disease so he had to look after him. His mate stood there dribbling, rolling his eyes and shouted out "Ah've got Huntingdon's!" about four times during the conversation. Now I have to be honest, I don't know anything about the symptoms of Huntingdon's so I'm not sure if he was faking or if these were genuine symptoms. Either way, I told them no and carried on walking.

theres the rough looking bloke on crutches who insists on showing you his manky ulcerated ankle and needs the bus fair to get up to the hallamshire hospital for an appointment- tried to con me twice in the same week- once outside Staples on the Moor and once near the train station. He tried the same scam with my other half too.