Patsy Stoned

Errr.... Why would you ever think that Armani would sell on the street??
If you want a bargain, go to the Outlet Mall or to Priceless in Maktoum Street..I got an Armani suit reduced from 9000dhs to 800dhs..now that was a bargain darling!!

The Dean

...........can you tell me the way to the airport............?

flares

Am I right in thinking your suits have mahoosive shoulder pads Patsy?

mikewot

The story they tell is very believable as per the link. They're very very good actors

Patsy Stoned

hahahaaaa No darling

scrubbedexpat141

Very true. It's also inherently hard to be rude enough to make people like this stop.

I generally offer polite rejection, polite rejection, polite rejecection, less polite rejection, start to walk away, polite rejection then finish with **** off whilst walking away.

captainflack

I got this guy try it on outside the Welcare clinic KV a year or two back.

Here's the basics for those not familiar:

1. Guy with comedy italian accent leans out, asks for directions to airport in Italian. This should be first warning sign. He's looking for the airport in the back streets of Tecom/KV/Marina, etc.? Not just that, but he's pulled over and addressed a complete stranger in the middle of Dubai in Italian, even though he apparently (it turns out) speaks quite passable English?

2. When you reply you're not italian, he breathes a sigh of relief and engages you in conversation, in English, naturally. He's quite obviously not really italian, and speaks no more than a few words, hence finding a real italian would be a bit of a bummer for him.

3. He thanks you for your directions to the airport (which he no doubt chooses because everyone knows where it is, and hence he's guaranteed you'll be able to help). You just gave him directions, but he seems to have formed some kind of spiritual bond with you in these few seconds. He wants to reward you greatly for your overwhelming kindness in pointing and saying 'keep driving that way'.

4. He proceeds to get some 'expensive' suits out of the car and starts giving them to you. Apparently, he's on his way home from a trade visit and if he takes them back to italy with him, he'll have to pay tax on them (which is bullsh1t, obviously, as I explained to him - 'is this your first trip overseas?' I asked incredulously, which ruffled him a bit). He produces an invoice which shows the tax on the items, and it also shows the ridiculous prices of the items.

5. He just wants a small favour. Can you buy his wife some perfume? Actually, she must be a right sweaty old hag, because he wants four bottles. Who gives the mrs 4 bottles of perfume after a business trip? He's obviously going to sell the stuff, so the bullsh1t meter is topping out now.

6. He'll no doubt give you a sh1tty papery business card, which looks somewhat out of sorts with his claimed role as a purveyor of pricey designer fashion. He looked rather miffed when I suggested that he needs to get some Amani business cards, or at least print them on Amani printer paper.

7. I politely pointed out that if he's looking for fancy perfume, then a gravel parking lot around sunset isn't the best place for me to lay my hands on it. A better place might be duty free at the airport - the place he just claimed to be on his way to.

I declined his obvious bogus offer, I think he realized I wasn't a sucker and he headed off.

Same guy tried to stop me outside Spinneys at the Marina some months later. As soon as he leaned out and talked to me in Italian, i told him I knew the scam and he drove off rather sheepishly.

Next time I'll note down the license plate and report it to the police, though I suspect they'd do squat about it and probably say he wasn't doing anything wrong.

mikewot

For me he spoke English and I have a few words of Italian, which he responded to. Otherwise pretty much on the money except the business card came first and it's better than mine :-)

captainflack

And just in case anyone hasn't come across the other scams doing the rounds:

1. If you get stopped by a guy from Oman in a car with his family who doesn't have enough cash to get fuel to go home (often at a petrol station), walk away.

2. If you get some guy who looks like a labourer who shows you some festering wound and asks for money, get our your phone and call him an ambulance and see how quickly he disappears.

If people approach you out of the blue, the default position should be to assume some kind of scam, but I'm polite enough to keep it to myself until I've confirmed to my satisfaction that it is.

captainflack

Maybe he took my advice on the business cards and sharpened up his Italian too.

Feel rather guilty now.

mikewot

Yup, you helped refine the scam But at least I got a suit and I've learnt a lesson.

co durham boy

Can't believe people get suckered into this scam . Its the same as the high end watch scam that used to get floated out at service stations in the UK by the usual South London and Liverpudlian gentry .

The cheapest off the peg Armani suit is going to cost you 3000 AED , you'd just about get the buttons and the zip for 500 chips !

mikewot

What's not to believe, I wrote my story as a warning to others. Perhaps I should have kept quiet so I didn't make myself look like such a plonker but whatever.

rowell

It has been going on that long you will not be the first and certainly not the last, and other than a little pride what did you loose? maybe 100dhs or so more than you may have paid for a suit of the same quality!

scrubbedexpat141

I thought the suit fit? Surely you've won?