Con artist dupe student in flim flam

Link seen to ongoing scam A student was conned out of $220 and his MAC card by a flim flam artist in the fifth such attempted scam since the academic year began, University Police said yesterday. The latest victim, College freshman John Ricchio, met a man and his accomplice – who acts as a bystander – at 36th and Walnut streets, Ricchio said last night. The scam scenario has been virtually the same in every incident. The first man, claiming to be from South Africa, says he is in trouble and needs help finding a place to stay and a place to keep his money. He asks the student to hold a wad of money that he says contains $10,000. Then, the accomplice – acting like an innocent bystander – shows up and tries to convince the student to help the foreigner. In yesterday's incident, Ricchio agreed to help. The foreigner also typically wants to learn "how to take money out of the wall," referring to MAC machines. After prompting, Ricchio showed the man how to use his MAC card at a machine near 36th and Market streets, while taking out $20 for himself, Ricchio said. The three then went into the subway station at 36th and Samson streets – for safety – where Ricchio placed his MAC card and $20 he had withdrawn from the bank in a handkerchief with the con man's supposed wad of $10,000. Ricchio believed he was holding the man's $10,000 while the man went downtown. The man was to return in the afternoon to pick up his money. It was not until later, however, that Ricchio realized he had been given a second – empty – handkerchief. The con man had taken not only his MAC card and $20, but had withdrawn another $200 from Ricchio's account after the threesome had broken up. Ricchio said last night that although he had read articles in The Daily Pennsylvanian about similar scams, he grew less suspicious when the accomplice appeared. "When the other guy was there, I thought we were both in it," he said. The incident follows numerous prior scams in which a con man tried to dupe students out of large sums of money and MAC cards. Several students fell for the ploy in September, while one student reportedly was not fooled in a November attempt. Police say the best way to protect oneself from flim flam artists is to use common sense. "If something sounds too good, it probably is," University Police Sgt. Joe Risoli said last night. "You need common sense. "If anybody ever asks you to use your MAC card, the answer is definitely no," Risoli said. Risoli also warned that students should be wary of phone calls from alleged credit card companies. He said some con artists have called and said they were from banks in efforts to try to obtain students' credit card numbers.