UPDATE: Thursday, May 23, 9:30 a.m.: An additional incident of scamming took place in Central Park on Tuesday, and this time NYPD have two photos of the suspects.
A 23-year-old woman was walking on Tuesday about 1:30 p.m. within the park near West 101st Street and West Drive, when four people approached her and asked for money related to a basketball fundraiser, police said. The woman ended up handing over her phone, and a member of the group unsuccessfully attempted to transfer an undetermined amount of money to his account, police said. The group proceeded to run off, NYPD added.
Here are photos of the young men wanted in connection to the scam, according to police.
ORIGINAL STORY
By Gus Saltonstall
In recent days, scammers pretending to raise money for youth sports teams swindled multiple people out of thousands of dollars in Central Park, a police spokesperson told West Side Rag.
On Sunday and Monday, there were five incidents, three of which took place on Sheep Meadow, where a group of youths approached someone in the park, before asking them to make a donation to their sports team, police said.
During that interaction, the group convinces the victim to hand over their phone under the guise of entering their information, but then quickly sends themselves a large sum of money without the person’s consent, as opposed to the $5 or $10 donation previously agreed on, police said.
Here are details of the specific incidents.
Around 2:40 p.m. on Sunday, a pair of youths walked up to a 23-year-old woman near 68th Street and West Drive in Central Park, and asked her to make a donation to their sports team, police said. The woman agreed to donate $10, but when she handed them the phone to send the money, they transferred themselves $2,000, police said.
Around two hours later on Sheep Meadow, a youth walked up to a 24-year-old woman and also asked if she would like to make a donation to their sports team, police said. The woman agreed to $10, but then the youth used her phone to transfer $3,500, police said. In this case, though, the woman was able to cancel the transaction before it was completed, police said.
Minutes after that incident, two youths approached a different 33-year-old woman on Sheep Meadow and again asked for a donation to their sports team, police said. The woman agreed to give $5 and gave her phone to one of the individuals, who promptly transferred themselves $928, police said.
There were also two incidents on Monday, the first at 1:35 p.m. within Sheep Meadow, when two youths walked up to a 22-year-old woman and again asked for a donation to their youth sports team, police said. The duo ended up with the woman’s phone and transferred $2,000 to themselves, police said.
An hour later, two youths approached a 25-year-old woman near 67th Street and West Drive within Central Park, asked for a donation to their sports team, and agreed on $10, police said. The scammers proceeded to send themselves $2,000, though, police said.
There were no injuries in any of the incidents, and there have been no arrests as of Tuesday night, police said.
The Central Park precinct deployed a Smart Car to the Sheep Meadow area on Tuesday to increase mobility and visibility of the area, and to allow officers to quickly respond to any sort of incident, according to West Side Rag sources.
The scam described above is not a new scheme in New York City, but NYPD added that there has been recent press coverage around the issue and that it’s now made its way to Central Park.
On Monday, the former Miss New York was duped of $2,000 in the same scheme in Lower Manhattan, when two teenagers sent themselves $2,000 on Zelle after agreeing to a much smaller amount as a donation to their basketball team, reported the New York Post.
The Rag will keep an eye out for any developments on the Central Park incidents.
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I am not judging and I know these women meant well but no one should EVER give to any charity without researching the organization. There are even more established ones where the principals give themselves excessive salaries.
I would never hand my phone to a kid in the park. Not even to take my picture.
I’m willing to bet there were dozens of others who were approached and, after agreeing to a small donation, refused to hand over their phones. These probably wouldn’t have been reported.
And, by all means, do not hand your phone to a stranger to enter information, especially when you have one of the cash sending apps open. They can text you their user name on venmo/cashapp/paypal etc if it is not easy to type in from just hearing or they should have cards/pieces of paper with the info pre-printed ready to hand out. If a person soliciting for a charity doesn’t have something like that or insists that they’ll just enter their info themselves on your phone, that should be viewed as a big red flag that they are not on the up and up.
Whether it’s a legitimate charity or not, there is no reason for anyone to hand their phone to another person to make a transaction. I don’t understand how so many young women handed over their phones. : (
I understand, having been a young woman once myself. These young women are made to feel guilty, or they already feel guilty for whatever reasons. These young women were taught to be accommodating and charitable. These young women became scared during the encounter.
Good grief. Were these NYers? Are you a NYer?
Young NY women going back generations have always been taught to ignore strangers who behave like this. Don’t engage, don’t even look directly at them. We were NEVER taught to be accommodating or charitable.
FYI, I still couldn’t open the links on your email newsletter and had to go to an online version to send this. I hope the problem will be resolved soon. Maybe I’m the only one still experiencing this but wanted to let you know. Thanks.
Thanks, Susan. We know and are definitely working on it.
Not to victim-blame, but you should NEVER hand your phone over to someone you don’t know, especially with open access to your Venmo or any other pay app! Also, did they not even bother to do a little research into the “team” they were going to support? THINK, PEOPLE!!
I do not know what these solicitors looked like, but there may be a fear element here, where the victim think 10 dollars is a small price to pay to have the solicitors leave.
Indeed!
If I recall the Times story about the former Miss New York who was scammed for $2000, the scammers were innocent-looking and fast-talking teens who charmed her into contributing to their team’s uniforms. No threats involved. I suspect that some of the young women who lost money to these junior con men enjoy the convenience of their Zelle and Venmo accounts but don’t understand the consequences of using them indiscriminately — or letting strangers use them.
Seems like it would be pretty easy to catch these people being that they need an account to transfer the money to. Just track the people behind the accounts. Freeze their accounts and cards and arrest them.
It’s fair to say that NYPD is already exploring this and we can expect arrests
Why in heaven’s name would you hand your phone to a stranger?
Could be a part of the scam: you say you have Zelle or whatever and you try to make the $10 payment. Doesn’t work (because maybe they gave you a non-number or account name intentionally) you are bit sheepish – and one of the nice kids says “maybe if I try?” and of course you just pass the phone for them to put in the right thing.
“There were no injuries in any of the incidents, and there have been no arrests as of Tuesday night, police said.”
THAT is the real news. Why not????
Abusing people’s charitable instincts is a very low act when so many legit charities need support. Sad for all.
When people ask for money for whatever just ignore them or say no. Don’t be intimidated nor do you owe a stranger anything. Give to established charity’s.
Geeze, I notice there are no seniors on the victim list. smh
One of these guys got me in Bryant park LAST JUNE. I didn’t hand him my phone but did Venmo him $20 for his sports team to travel to a tournament. I just went back to look at the Venmo transaction and he has clearly been making a living doing this. Easily 100+ donations in the last month alone all with football or basketball sentiments. Again, he got me last June. So frustrating and disappointing.
Maybe he actually used the 100+ donations for his sports team. Just sayin’…
The first and last time I fell for well dressed juvenile scam was during the last century before cell phones and corner pay phones was 25 cents for a local NYC call. A school age male standing on the street near my place of work asked if I had 25 cents to make a call. I did and I gave him a quarter.
Before I got out of earshot I heard him ask another passersby for money, so I turned around and went back to ask for my quarter back. He did give it back to me.
People fall for frauds, liars and scammers at every level. One might even get back to the White House.
It was another president who said… “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, …er….., Won’t get fooled again “
There are numerous bad people out there looking to scam those walking in the city, from panhandlers harassing you on the street to those selling candy/fruit,some carrying babies or accompanied with kids. It,s a constant hassle just getting around the city, whether on the street, subway, even buses. My advice is to treat all of these encounters are scams of one kind or another. Just keep walking and do not interact .in addition to tens of thousands of mentally ill and substance abusers there are now gangs of teenagers trying to grift in or near Central Park. Given there are no repercussions when police arrest, there is really nothing to deter the endless grifters, thieves and low,life’s from enjoying life in the big city. Welcome to nyc,
I have seen these guys in Central Park inside the great lawn, trying to do the same thing and they attend to go up to women and younger girls and tourist families.
Guys will not even
listen to them….👎
Are any of these team funding requests legit at all? They’re often in front of fairway, Zabar’s, Barnes and Noble…
That would be worth knowing!
It makes you wonder how in 2024 ppl are still so incredibly gullible that agree to hand over their phone to a complete stranger to make a money transfer nonetheless!
The board convened to deliberate on the matter of soliciting signatures on petitions in public spaces and engaging in monetary donations. The outcome of the deliberation was unanimous. It has been determined that I am prohibited from engaging in such activities. The board has established stringent regulations with severe consequences for any breach of this protocol. Additionally, compliance with the policy necessitates adherence even in circumstances where personal preference may differ. Therefore, I steadfastly adhere to the prescribed guidelines without deviation. This adherence is indisputable.
These sidewalk “sports team” scams have been going on for decades in NYC. Don’t engage.
I don’t believe in a cashless society so I always carry about 10 $5 bills with me. In my pocket so I don’t have to fumble with a wallet. If I think someone asking for money in a polite manner is deserving or I need to tip, I give them a $5. If I’ve been scammed so be it. It was my choice. But I never would handover a phone or credit card or sign anything. or commit to anything. I tend to avoid anyone with a clipboard!
Reminds one of Shakespeare “ Lord, what fools these mortals be”, or ( allegedly) P. T. Barnum “There’s a sucker born every minute”
Maybe these young women aren’t handing over their phones because they’re gullible. The top photo looks as though she could have felt surrounded and uncomfortable to not comply. Have we heard from the victims? Were they happy to make the “donation”? Or did they feel coerced? You might say, “what difference does that make?” But it feels like a form of victim shaming to go on about how naive they are or how they should’ve vetted the charity before agreeing to donate.
More likely the kids were cheery and appealing! Secret to good street scams is to get you to willingly make an idiot of yourself regardless of gender.
I agree. I think they felt intimated. I wonder if the scammers were especially targeting women.
This is a “young people are idiots” caveat emptor story. No adult in their right mind would give over their phone to strangers to transfer money from an app. How dumb are these Gen Z era?
These criminals are the same people for the past few years roaming Central Park with candy bars, selling them at one dollar to support their high school team or buy equipment and clothing for their team. They’ve gone from misdemeanor to felony. And yes, these are the same people outside of Zabar’s’s and Citarella doing the same thing. They are definitely not legit and the best thing to do is to look the other way, once you make eye contact, they gotcha! 👁️👁️
I “donated” only a couple of dollars to a young woman outside of the post office at 66th and Columbus. She also had a clip board and was requesting names, email contact and a phone number. I declined signing up for “information about upcoming games.”
This may, or may not be, related to the CP scam. I hope this well-spoken and seemingly sincere young woman was in earnest with her efforts to support high school programs for young women.
Criminal activity. They target, intimidate and harass white tourists and young white females who are by themselves. These criminals belong in jail. Never give anyone you phone. Don’t show cash. Just say no. Unfortunately this will escalate to assault and robbery. But the city is safe right?
Do these young solicitors ever approach men?