wow...sometimes the simplest scams are the most effective

[Blue_Tires]

sorry if repost

http://www.mailtribune.com/archive/2006/0108/local/stories/01local.htm

‘Affluent beggars’
Couple supports family through panhandling; Ashland merchants fear negative impact on customers
By JENNIFER MARGULIS
for the Mail Tribune

(snip)
The first time 30-year-old Elizabeth Johnson stopped a stranger on the street to ask for money, she was really nervous. She was six months pregnant and desperate, having just spent seven days in jail for shoplifting books.

"How are people going to perceive me?" Johnson remembers wondering. "They’re going to think I’m crazy."

That was six years ago in Madison, Wis. The Ashland mother says in hindsight, she believes she was socially conditioned to think that if you ask people for money something is wrong with you.

Since then she has changed her mind. "I don’t believe that at all anymore," Johnson says.
(snip)
According to Pancoast, begging can be lucrative. He claims the family sometimes makes $300 a day asking for money and has made as much as $800. The family also receives $500 a month in food stamps.
(snip)

[Indy_Dem_Defender]

1. Piece of

sit!

[Blue_Tires]

2. ttt n/t

[Crazy Dave]

3. $300 a day asking for money (and pays no taxes)

Talk about a greedy-ass tax cut.

[Rabrrrrrr]

4. Throw the miserable suckwad asshole family in jail

[LisaL]

5. Begging is not illegal. IRS could probably get interested, because

it's highly unlikely they are paying taxes. Also, looks like they are committing Welfare fraud, considering they are getting food stamps.

[Rabrrrrrr]

6. Begging is illegal in many areas; but that doesn't bother me. It's

the tax fraud and the food stamp fraud that pisses me off, and for which they should spend many years in jail.

[LisaL]

8. Well, now that these people let the world know,

perhaps IRS will take a look, along with whoever investigates Welfare fraud.

[Rabrrrrrr]

9. Yes, I think so!

I have a feeling they are not in a good position right now... :evilgrin:

[Gormy Cuss]

10. Yep. Not the sharpest knives in the drawer.

Tell a reporter you're scamming the government several ways -- not a good plan. The food stamp recertification should be interesting.

[bleedingheart]

16. yeah and their three kids can end up in foster care and the ugly

cycle can keep going...

Based on the article...the two adults have adapted a system that works for them and they appear to be raising three kids rather well...tax issues aside I think these two need a bit of guidance. Neither one seems to be able to hold a steady job and they both had bad parenting examples...(although they appear to be overcoming that)...if anything they need a mentor couple to help them settle in and find proper employment and a more stable environment for their children.

[Rabrrrrrr]

18. Uh, yeah... and Al Capone found a system that worked for him.

It's still illegal.

Do we start making exceptions for criminals with kids? That could get pretty dangerous.

[bleedingheart]

20. no but lets be honest these two may be con artists but

I wonder if they aren't just a bit screwed up from their past, and if they were seasoned con artists they wouldn't have been dumb enough to let someone interview them (but I could be wrong).

I am sure the IRS has already picked up on this scheme from the coverage.

[LisaL]

23. Yes, they are very dumb. When you are breaking the law,

do not give interviews describing exactly how you do it.

[LisaL]

24. Taxes aside? LOL. Why don't you or I do it?

Anyone can just set taxes aside, no?

[joeunderdog]

30. It's welfare fraud. Food stamps are based on income.

They are misrepresenting their income to qualify for state assistance. Maybe these kinds of tax-evaders and system abusers are why really needy people can't get assistance.

RW'ers will blame the Liburls on this one.

[CanuckAmok]

7. There was a piece on 60 Minutes, years ago...

about a Harvard Law student who put himself through school solely by begging on Wall Street.

[Blue_Tires]

13. wow...not to sound callous, but

you HAVE to be white to get away with something like that, or that family in the OP

[CanuckAmok]

21. Probably, plus...

...the guy on Wall Street was saying "Can you spare some change for someone enrolled in Harvard Law", and he was clean-shaven and in a shirt and tie. I'm sure many stockbroker types found that really ambitious.

[anarch]

11. whenever I get panhandled, I always check out their shoes

If they are wearing $200 Nike's or something like that, they aren't getting shit from me.

It's amazing how many times I've been hit up by people that are dressed much, much better and more expensively than I am. What the hell? And I have to go to work every day?

[Jamastiene]

12. I always wonder how they manage to get enough money

for airfare on Amazing Race when all their money is taken away after a nonelimination leg of the race. It doesn't seem that simply asking people for it would work. I would never be able to squeeze a dime out of anybody. If they can live off their begging, more power to them. It's a skill I wish I had. It sure beats slave labor on minimum wage. :shrug:

[Heddi]

14. The only thing they DON'T pay for on Amazing Race is airfare

when the people are begging in the airports, etc, they are begging for $$ to get them taxis, food, etc on the next leg of the race. AR always pays airfare, non-elimination leg or not.

[bleedingheart]

15. at least they are honest about what they are doing - to each his own

their life isn't one of supreme luxury and it has its risks.....BUT this kind of story does what the republicans want it to do... it has people viewing the poor as leeches...and it numbs people to the point that 17 year old kids go out and beat a homeless man to death with a bat...

In the case of these folks...people have a choice to give them money or not. They have a choice to help them...but look...they appear to be able to care for their small children well enough...

and let us keep in mind...these folks are currently a rarity but hell who knows if the Bushies have their way more of us may be in the same position...

[Blue_Tires]

17. all I'm saying is

they have the absolute flimsiest, cop-out excuses for not even TRYING to find work...What kind of example does that set for the kids?

I guess in their defense you can say that at least they haven't become hardened criminals or murderers trying to make ends meet, but still, at some point in time, they have to at least TRY to become more responsible--Obviously I feel that if they worked as hard in the job market as they do hustling for their bucks (would you give a beggar money if you already knew he/she pulled in $500+ that day??)

But then again, maybe I'm wrong...

[bleedingheart]

19. it appears the father and the mother have a hard time keeping

real jobs, the article states the father has lost two (once fired, another less specific) so I wonder if they perhaps wouldn't benefit from some mentoring.

This is one of those times a local charity group or church could step in to help with guiding them to a better form of self-sufficiency. A mentor program for them of sorts would be good...

I fear for the kids well being as they age, having the "beggar" parents isn't going to make their lives any easier.

[LisaL]

22. They are breaking the law, because it's rather obvious

they do not declare their income, as they are supposed too. They are getting food stamps, and do not pay taxes. People give money to them out of the goodness of their harts, not realizing the beggars make money money than they do.

[oneighty]

25. How will they prove

the dollar value of their scam? Savings account? Checking account? Real property? Gold bars? Stock?

180

[LisaL]

26. Perhaps the interview they just gave to reporters, saying

they were making 300$ a day could help?
:shrug:

[oneighty]

27. I would say to them

"Prove it."

180

[LisaL]

28. Confession goes a long way toward proving something,

and they had just confessed to all of us by giving that interview.

[lakemonster11]

29. There was a guy who panhandled in my neighborhood

last year (he's probably still there, but I've moved) who I always suspected was an "affluent beggar."

He was young and strong and always seemed clean and healthy, both physically and mentally. His clothes weren't obviously expensive, but he was dressed just as well as most of us on the street. He spoke well. He stood out to me from the many other beggars, most of whom seemed to be teenage runaways and people with disabilities and/or mental problems.

Then one day, instead of asking me for money, he started flirting with me and tried to talk me into going to a club or bar with him and his friends. He pulled out a cell phone so that he could program my number in - I just told him I wasn't available and moved on.

I wasn't sure what to think at the time, and I'm not sure what to think about this couple. I'm a bit of a pragmatist, and I know that for some begging might be more "lucrative" than working full-time at a minimum-wage job, but, at the same time, people give money to beggars because they think that they're desperate. People like this take advantage of other people's generosity and, what's worse, make people skeptical about helping people in real trouble.

[Blue_Tires]

31. well said n/t