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Just to warn anyone who shops in the Hesdin area that the deaf/dumb charity petition scammers are currently active in the local supermarkets.

I was approached by one such scammer yesterday in Leader with a petition to sign, which I politely declined (having prior knowledge of such a scam and also my being of a very suspicious nature anyway!). I had also noticed - in the empty shop - that the alleged deaf/dumb petitioner was being monitored by a couple of 'heavies' standing oddly out of place at the end of the aisle I was in. No doubt the moment anyone is distracted their job is to move in for a swift pickpocket/handbag snatch, as is happening regularly on the streets of Paris, Lille etc. Once dismissed with my polite 'non merci', the chap left the shop (by the entrance, not the exit) with his two cronies following along behind. The only member of shop staff was busy stacking shelves in another aisle, completely oblivious to his unwanted visitors.

Shoppers beware!

Chat Noir

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We came across a similar young man in our local market a month or two ago.

Naively, I signed the 'petition' and offered him a couple of €2 coins which for me (being a skinflint as the family always say) was I thought quite generous.

The lad pointed at the two other entries on the page showing €20 & €30 - I now realise almost certainly fictitious. He wasn't happy, so I told him to **** *** - not something that I was particularly proud of at the time.  He didn't get my €4.

I didn't see any accomplices, but the warning is timely.

  

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They've been trying Gardian's version of this for several years in Montpellier - by the Cathedral and on the Promenade de Peyrou. The main miscreant always approaches what he thinks are tourists. Friends of ours who can sign tested him: if he's deaf & dumb, I'm second in line to the throne. Very early on, he and his associates demonstrated that they didn't like taking "No" for an answer: now he doesn't like it when I stand between him and his targets and tell him in English to "P*** off". Funnily enough, he has since recovered the ability to speak.
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Coincidentally, after my experience, France 24 aired a report yesterday on the Paris scammers/pickpockets, so hopefully the message will filter through to other non-internet people - as an elderly expat couple I know had a similar scam pulled on them in their local Intermarché (where the thieves got away with his wallet!). When they reported the theft to the shop manager, he just shrugged his shoulders and said it was their fault - but admitted that the shop was being regularly targeted by a group of (alleged) Romanians and although there are security guards, they were not dealing with the situation. Disgraceful!

Chat Noir

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