Beware of Sacramento Con Artists on Cellphones

Well, don’t I feel like almost a victim — as I was completely unaware of Sacramento con artists on cellphones. I’m sharing this with you so you’ll recognize it when it happens. We all see the guys with cardboard signs standing on street corners and begging for money. Some of those people have dire needs but some are also professional beggars. Part of me says what difference does it make if people have to lie or beg to get money, we should just give it to them if we have it. But then another part of me says whoa to scammers. Because I don’t like being played as a victim when they tug on my heart strings.

You let down your guard when you walk into Target, for example. Which is where we were yesterday after the Land Park Community Association membership BBQ. Picking up a few items we can’t get at the Sacramento Co-op. Focused, on a mission. Although I was marveling at how different Target looks versus the last time I visited that store at Broadway and Riverside. It’s been redesigned and the layout is different. Just strolling along with my husband, headed for the aisles displaying enormous packages of paper towels.

Someone behind us was on a cellphone. We could not help but overhear his conversation. The person talking seemed overly anxious and said things like, “You know, I have to get to my job. I have to be there in 45 minutes and I can’t lose my job. But I don’t have any money for gas, I don’t want to lose my job.” Very personal information. My bogus radar should have gone up, but it didn’t. I whispered to my husband that we should help this guy. Thinking, maybe we should give him twenty bucks.

Well, apparently a lot of people think that way. I am certainly not the only one. The dude is counting on it. My husband said he heard that same conversation down the street at a different store a few days earlier. Same guy, too. Did not know I have to look out for Sacramento con artists on cellphones, but that’s how they rope you in. Making it sound so innocent, like you just happened to overhear their distressing conversation.

Geez. You can’t even go to Target without confronting Sacramento con artists on cellphones. If you could glance at the scammer’s phone, you’d see there is nobody on the other end of the phone.