The Museum of Hoaxes
Nebulizer Scam
Posted By:
Accipiter
May 11, 2005
 At three o'clock in the morning last night, a man dressed in a formal suit rang my doorbell. When I answered, he said that he was having an emergency. His daughter was asthmatic and having an attack, and he needed money so he could drive to Wal-Mart and buy her a nebulizer. His car was parked down at the end of my driveway with somebody sitting in it and the engine running.
Interestingly enough, several months ago a woman came to my door with the exact same story, delivered almost word-for-word. And an acquaintance of mine who lives in a nearby town told me of an identical lady with the same story who'd come to her house. So obviously it's some sort of scam. The thing I want to know is, how widespread is this particular scam? Is it just this man and woman, running the scam here in eastern Maryland? Or are people elsewhere doing the same thing?
Category: Scams; Replies: 16

Comments
Maegan
in Tampa, FL - USA
 Member
Posted: Wed May 11, 2005 | 06:54 AM
Uhh...no one has come to my house in the middle of the night...but I live in a neighborhood where everyone is at least an acre apart, and the homes are modular...(ehh, more than half of them are).

People looking for money would probably go to the $750k homes about 1/2 mile down the road.
X
in McKinney, TX
 Member
Posted: Wed May 11, 2005 | 11:37 AM
It might just be a local thing. At the moment.
Winona
in USA
 Member
Posted: Wed May 11, 2005 | 11:42 AM
I had it happen to me, years ago. Funny thing is, they were doing at some scummy litle apartments i was living in the time. They might have guessed that no one there had any money, duh. 😉
Terry Austin
Posted: Wed May 11, 2005 | 02:37 PM
Nobody who has actually dealt with asthma would ever do such a thing. An asthma attak is life threatening. If you do not have the nebulizer at hand for immediate treatment, you need to call 911 immediately. By the time you get the prescription filled, it is far too late.

The fastest I have ever seen emergency room people move was when I took a friend to the ER during an asthma attack. They heard the words "asthma" and "difficulty breathing," and man, you'd have though somebody put a bomb under them. He was in front of a doctor within 60 seconds, despite a line of other various emergencies. And rightly so. People die waiting for treatment of asthma attacks.

So, if some scam artist shows up with a lame scam like that, offer to call 911. If they refuse, call 911 anyway. Just for a different reason. It's the only appropriate response. If they're a scam artist, they need to be arrested. If it's a genuine asthma attack, you may well save a life.
Mark-N-Isa
in Midwest USA
 Member
Posted: Wed May 11, 2005 | 05:41 PM
3 in the morning? At 3am I answer the door "shotgun in hand" so to answer the question...

We have never seen that in this area, but I'm looking forward to it if we ever do! 😉

Actually though, we live so far out in the country that I doubt we'll ever see it...
Papazombie
Posted: Wed May 11, 2005 | 05:46 PM
I live in Edmonton. This is new to me.
Smerk
in to mischief
 Member
Posted: Wed May 11, 2005 | 06:05 PM
And just think, Acci also answered the door half naked....
Razela
in Chicago, IL
 Member
Posted: Wed May 11, 2005 | 06:51 PM
I once had someone come to my apartment in Tucson in the middle of the afternoon with something similar. I answered the door and he handed me a piece of paper with writing on it. It said something along the lines of, "I am deaf. My family and I are stuck near the road because our car ran out of gas. Do you have any change that could help me and my mother drive back to Marana where we live?" I knew it was probably a scam, but I gave him a dollar or two anyways because I'm too nice for my own good. There were so many reasons why his story wasn't true though.
Accipiter
Member
Posted: Wed May 11, 2005 | 09:11 PM
I wasn't quite half-naked; I had a robe. And a rifle with bayonet, since I'm not entirely trusting of late-night callers.
Sarah
Posted: Mon Feb 18, 2008 | 05:11 PM
I know this was posted years ago, but I live in Chicago and was just approached by a man with the same story. He flagged me down as I was stopped at an intersection and said, "You speak English, right?" His story was that he lived down the road and his daughter was having an asthma attack. His doctor had just called in the prescription and he needed money to fill it. He said he had $24 (which he held in his hand) and that he needed $40. He said I could have his phone (as if I'd want it!) and told me he wasn't going to hurt me, that he's a good guy. I was already suspicious but that last part completely gave the scam away. I told him he should call 911 with his phone and as soon as I started to pull away I heard him approach a woman who was crossing the street. The poster above is right. If someone is having an asthma attack, the correct response would be to call 911, not to panhandle the "refill money" on the street.
Ray
Posted: Mon Mar 24, 2008 | 09:35 PM
I got approached by the same scam in Chicago about 3 years ago. A guy needed money for asthma medicine for his daughter. It was about 3:00 on a Friday or Saturday night and I was drunk and smoking a cigarette on my front deck so I was an easy target. After giving the guy $20 he turned to walk away but then stopped to ask me for a cigarette, which finally set something off in my naive drunken mind. I walked up to the guy and told him that he'd better give my money back and get out of my face before I kicked his ass. He gave the mony back and he took off.

Definitely a scam. don't fall for it.
Kathy
Posted: Sun Jun 22, 2008 | 04:30 PM
The same exact nebulizer scam happened to me yesterday!! I live in the Edgewater area - I thought I had heard of some kind of scam like this but was not sure. I ended up reluctantly giving this guy $12.00 after going back and forth about it.

He gave me his phone as collateral and said he would pick it on Monday. I was very skeptical about it, but had the nagging "what if this really is an emergency" thought in my mind.

Of course, just calling 911 would be the thing to do. I hope this happens to me again - I will be way better prepared.
Nebulizer
Posted: Thu Jul 03, 2008 | 09:42 AM
Right, this'll make it four on the bounce from Chicago LOL!

Happened to me one nite about 8 years ago when I was living in a walkup on a busy half-mile street in Ravenswood, with door buzzers located inside an unsecured door off the main sidewalk.

Guy sounded appropriately frantic and pleading, and he spoke in an accent which suggested to me that Spanish was his native language. Can't recall the details of his spiel or what time it was, but I'm pretty certain that it was well before midnite.

I told him (over the intercom) that there was an emergency room located one block directly north of the alley next to my building (true) and suggested that he take his "little girl" there or just call 911 from the payphone down the diner at the corner and bade him good evening.

The end (oh, and mucho props to Terry up above for the totally useful asthma factology --well worth knowing).
John
Posted: Thu Sep 25, 2008 | 10:05 AM
This just happened to me last night in Long Beach, CA. A lady came to the door and spoke to my live-in girlfriend about her daughter having an asthma attack. She needed 18 dollars to fill a prescription for an inhaler. She said she was an elementary school teacher and a neighbor of ours and was willing to leave her ring as collateral which we reluctantly turned down. She said she'd return with the money once her sister got there in an hour or so. She even said she'd bring us something extra. Then she asked my girlfriend for a hug. Unbelievable! I feel like such an idiot for falling for this. She was very convincing and acted very frantic. Beware!
schism
Posted: Sat Apr 11, 2009 | 02:03 AM
This just happened to us in Brooklyn, New York in March 2009. My husband offered to give the guy our nebulizer, which of course, he refused. We then called 911 when we watched him lurking around the neighbors' houses.
Tom
Posted: Wed Aug 12, 2009 | 11:49 PM
This also may have just happened to me in brooklyn. My doorbell was rung at 1:30am by someone wearing a suit. I didn't answer but then saw him wander across the street to ring the bell of a nearby church.

Note: This thread is located in the Old Forum of the Museum of Hoaxes.