The Matzav Shmoooze: Scam at the Palisades Gas Station?

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Dear Editor,

I was at the Mobile gas station on the Palisades Parkway going towards Brooklyn this past Motzoei Shabbos. While waiting for my tank to fill up, one older worker with a light grey mustache came over and started telling me that on a recent Jewish holiday, “one of your guys filled up gas here and told me that he forgot his wallet at home.” The gas attendant waited for me to offer him the $20. I asked him if he wants me to pay him the money, and he told me, “Yes, if you don’t mind,” so I gave it to him. I felt compelled to pay for this other person’s gas; I didn’t want the attendant to think that a frum person owed money for gas.

However, a friend of mine now tells me that he’s also been approached in this fashion! So the whole thing might actually be a scam, with these gas attendants taking advantage of the good nature and goodwill of frum Yidden, who want to do the right thing.

This seems to be a new thing and perhaps we can stop it in the early staged.

Thank you, Matzav.

A Driver

Palisades, NJ

{Matzav.com}


21 COMMENTS

  1. I would be totally offended if I was approached like this. We are individuals and not one herd of people. I’m sorry but you’re very gullible.

  2. A possible solution is to ask the “attendant” if he can give you the “driver’s” contact information, and you’ll try to rectify the situation. If the story was legitimate, the minimum that he would have done is to take down the driver’s phone number. If he cant provide that, then you politely tell him that you’re sorry that you can’t help him…

  3. Why did they pay bichlal? Even it was true, they are not michuyav to pay for yenims promise. These gullible idiots are what you call a chosid shoyta. If someone steals from someone else, is a total stranger michuyav in the Mitzvah of Vihashev es hagzaila? There’s no “Kiddush Hashem” involved over here, only stupidity.

  4. Why did they pay bichlal? Even it was true, they are not michuyav to pay for yenims promise. These gullible idiots are what you call a chosid shoyta. If someone steals from someone else, is a total stranger michuyav in the Mitzvah of Vihashev es hagzaila? There’s no “Kiddush Hashem” involved over here, only stupidity.

    • The way you freely and easily call your well-meaning and generous fellow Yid “gullible idiot”, “chossid shoyta” and “stupid” says something about you. So does the arrogant screenname you’ve chosen for your post.

    • A minor edit to the above post

      I’m sorry to hear that your good nature and generosity were taken advantage of by a dishonest and unscrupulous liar and thief. Although your intentions were commendable, you probably shouldn’t have given him the money, even before you knew he was a scammer, for the following reasons:

      1) As you know, even if the story was true, there’s no chiyuv to make good for another’s theft.

      2) Even if the story was true, perhaps the other driver paid back the debt without the attendant’s knowledge, or will pay it back shortly. (Many years ago I accidentally went through a toll plaza without paying, and on a different occasion left a pizza store and forgot to pay. In both instances, I paid up at a later time.)

      3) You may actually harm your fellow Yid, either if this guy is a scammer or even if paying gives him the idea of scamming.

      Thank you for taking the time to let others know what happened to you and warn us so we are not similarly taken advantage of.

      Edit complete!

  5. It is a scam! He did the same thing to me a f I also gave him $20.
    In fact I was hit upon some time durin Adar. I deduce that he’s been doing it since then!
    He ought get the __ __ __ beaten out of him.

    I gave him the money because I felt badly that one of my people may have caused a ‘חילול ה and I wanted to fix that! I wasn’t זוכה.
    He should get exposed. We cannot get any refund and certainly no criminal charges are coming to him because we willingly gave him the money!

    • He tricked me early September on my way from a wedding in Monsey. Need to find out his name have several people call manager. He should be fired.

    • Sorry you made a chilul Hashem by being so stupid. Now he keeps trying assuming we are all that gullible and dumb

      There is no reason any logical person would think if one frum person owes money we all do.

      • Who says the motive was for chillul Hashem purposes? A neshama that leaves this world owing money to someone doesn’t get rest until repaid. My cheshbon was: What’s $20 for the eternity of a fellow Jew?
        The only mistake we made was trusting a Goy over a fellow Jew. It should not have entered our minds that fellow Jew would allow a goy to spot him a $20 for gas. Its not so much the trust we put in the Goy, but the lack of trust we have for our fellow Jews.

  6. Yes. It’s 100% a scam. How do I know? The same exact attendant at the same exact station tricked me too. He got on my guilt and my friend who was on speaker phone told me afterwards that I just got conned.
    Frankly I don’t care about my own $20 but he must be stopped. I live on the west coast and don’t spend much time there.
    What can be done to stop him?

  7. Better idea. People should go with camera and record it several times. Publicize it and his face. He should not find work ever again. He is not trustworthy

  8. I’ve now seen a video where a driver who gave him money, came back and called him out about it. The attendant admitted it was a scam…

  9. The manager should be notified. Then, if he does not take action, it should be publicized on review sites, but I think it’s unfair to this before giving the manager and the owners a chance to straighten the problem. They likely have no idea this has been going on.

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