Swoop and Squat - Sitcoms Online Message Boards

MarkPryor · 02-14-2005, 01:04 AM

I used to enjoy the FRAUD segments that they would show. They were always good for a laugh. Several that stand out include the lawyers in Southern Calif. that headed "swoop and squat" rings. They would send out poor Mexican/Asian immigrants to purposely get rear-ended by big rigs on the freeway in order to collect the insurance.
Another was the "pigeon drop" where someone claims to find a bag of money in a public place and approaches a "pigeon" (victim) to share in the good fortune. Usually an accomplice shows up and the perpetrators fret over the legalities of keeping the money. One of them purports to contact a lawyer who advises them that the money can indeed be split three ways but that each of them should put up a certain amount of "good faith" money from their personal bank accounts and then proceed to the law office where the money will be divided. Once the pigeon has handed over their money he/she is taken to a building that is claimed to be the law office and told to go to a specific room in order to collect their share. The room turns out to be a janitor's closet or something and when the pigeon returns to the parkling lot, surprise!!!, the perps are gone with their money. A variant of this is "Spanish Lotto" involving Hispanics that uses a supposedly winning lottery ticket as the bait. I remember UM showed a multitude of photos of Hispanics across the country that committed the spanish lotto con.

justins5256 · 02-14-2005, 08:34 AM

There was also the story about the fake coin scam. New Yorkers were approached by a homeless man who claimed that he found an envelope with a telephone number on it containing "rare" coins. The unsuspecting victim would then be conned into calling the number, which usually turned out to be a pay phone. The person who answered the phone would claim to be the owner of the coins and would offer the caller a large cash reward if they bought the coins off the homeless guy and returned them. Anyhow, victim buys the coins, usually for a hundred bucks or so, the homeless man vanishes, and the victim is typically sent to meet the "owner" of the coins at a hotel lobby. Naturally no one shows. The coins themselves are totally worthless. I remember UM interviewed a doorman at one of the hotels and he estimated that in the past year or so he had seen about 10,000 people come into the hotel who had been fooled by this scam.

-J

02-14-2005, 01:04 AM	#1
MarkPryor Member Occasional Poster Join Date: Feb 12, 2005 Posts: 6	Swoop and Squat I used to enjoy the FRAUD segments that they would show. They were always good for a laugh. Several that stand out include the lawyers in Southern Calif. that headed "swoop and squat" rings. They would send out poor Mexican/Asian immigrants to purposely get rear-ended by big rigs on the freeway in order to collect the insurance. Another was the "pigeon drop" where someone claims to find a bag of money in a public place and approaches a "pigeon" (victim) to share in the good fortune. Usually an accomplice shows up and the perpetrators fret over the legalities of keeping the money. One of them purports to contact a lawyer who advises them that the money can indeed be split three ways but that each of them should put up a certain amount of "good faith" money from their personal bank accounts and then proceed to the law office where the money will be divided. Once the pigeon has handed over their money he/she is taken to a building that is claimed to be the law office and told to go to a specific room in order to collect their share. The room turns out to be a janitor's closet or something and when the pigeon returns to the parkling lot, surprise!!!, the perps are gone with their money. A variant of this is "Spanish Lotto" involving Hispanics that uses a supposedly winning lottery ticket as the bait. I remember UM showed a multitude of photos of Hispanics across the country that committed the spanish lotto con.

02-14-2005, 08:34 AM	#2
justins5256 Member Forum 3000 Club Member Join Date: Aug 08, 2002 Posts: 3,866	There was also the story about the fake coin scam. New Yorkers were approached by a homeless man who claimed that he found an envelope with a telephone number on it containing "rare" coins. The unsuspecting victim would then be conned into calling the number, which usually turned out to be a pay phone. The person who answered the phone would claim to be the owner of the coins and would offer the caller a large cash reward if they bought the coins off the homeless guy and returned them. Anyhow, victim buys the coins, usually for a hundred bucks or so, the homeless man vanishes, and the victim is typically sent to meet the "owner" of the coins at a hotel lobby. Naturally no one shows. The coins themselves are totally worthless. I remember UM interviewed a doorman at one of the hotels and he estimated that in the past year or so he had seen about 10,000 people come into the hotel who had been fooled by this scam. -J