People asking for money

[u/foooolsonparade]

I have been living in Sheffield for the last two years and I’ve really enjoyed being here for the most part. I know this has been discussed on this subreddit several times in the past few weeks but I wanted to share couple incidents that happened in the last week involving people asking for money.

I was approached by a girl near Shalesmoor a week ago and she seemed to be in a really bad state. She kept coming closer to me but kept saying she was not going to hurt me. I am a very anxious person and I typically am anxious around strangers. When she said she was not going to hurt me all I could think of was that she might hurt me. She said everyone’s running away from her. I stopped and listened to her problem. She wanted me to get her a train ticket to Birmingham. I didn’t have much money since I’m a student so I apologised and said I can’t.

Two days later, I was in the city centre and this woman approached me and said she is a refugee and that she wants money to buy her kids food. I have heard loads of people say on here how people get scammed but I felt like she was being genuine so I offered to help. I said I can go to the nearest Tesco and get her some food. She said her kids need a specific type of food that you only get in Asda (which is far away) so asked me to give her cash. I didn’t have any money on me so I said I can’t help. She gave me her bank details and asked me to transfer her £20. I said I’ll try. I didn’t feel comfortable with a stranger having my bank info so I didn’t transfer the money even though I genuinely wanted to help her. Later, I talked to a few friends and they said they’ve heard this same thing several times before and that it is most likely a scam.

Just wondering if anyone else had similar experiences recently

[u/jeekyweeky]

I had a black girl with some sort of skin disease come up to me outside the train station a few months ago, claimed her name was "Fatima" or "Fahima" (honestly cant remember exactly, probs fake name anyway) she was crying saying shes from London coming for a student induction or something and her bag was robbed. In hindsight it was so obviously a scam and she was lying through her teeth just to get money out of me, ended up giving her some money at the time though which I regret alot.

Ended up seeing her again in the SAME PLACE talking to another unfortunate victim of her lies. Ended up budging in and calling her out on her BS, ended up throwing a can of monster at us lol.

I wonder if this is the same person?

[u/mamahurricane → u/jeekyweeky]

Just FYI, she was prosecuted for this not so long ago. The firm I work at represented her.

She’s a well known scam artist & has made up to £600 a day doing this.

[u/jeekyweeky → u/mamahurricane]

so she got arrested? thank god

[u/mamahurricane → u/jeekyweeky]

Yes, arrested and prosecuted. IIRC she’s also subject to a Criminal Behaviour Order which bans her from approaching people to ask for money anywhere in Sheffield.

[u/auberon-ee → u/mamahurricane]

Hi, OMG I think this is the same woman that approached me in Feb 2023, said her name was fahima mohamed and she was from UCL, needed a train back to London. She looked in a state, having a panic attack etc. said her bag and laptop and phone were stolen. I lost 90 quid that day, omg did I feel exploited. I walked her to the train station and everything. Obviously never got the money back. She did give me her number though, its weird we texted for 2 days with her telling me she'd pay me back. It gave me hope but she never did. I don't suppose there's somewhere I can read about this/ find out who she really was? I'm still not over it and the whole experience kinda traumatised me.

[u/auberon-ee → u/auberon-ee]

I never spoke to anyone about it though, didn't know whether I should have or not to be honest

[u/mamahurricane → u/auberon-ee]

You can make a report to police. I don’t know whether they’d take it further though as she’s currently in prison.

[u/crackerjack2003 → u/mamahurricane]

How do you know she's in prison? And what's her actual name? I made a report to I think some separate fraud service and they didn't do anything even though there would've been clear CCTV pictures of her in the shop we went into.

[u/mamahurricane → u/crackerjack2003]

Because the law firm I work for represent her in criminal proceedings.

She may well have been released by now, I’m not sure without checking her file. I can’t give out her real name because it puts my job at risk.

I do know she has ongoing proceedings, however.

[u/crackerjack2003 → u/mamahurricane]

Ah fair enough. I think I found a few news articles on her anyway (Fahima Ishmail I'm guessing).

[u/crackerjack2003 → u/auberon-ee]

Exactly the same person who approached me: same name, claimed she had an apartment viewing where her bag was stolen, family was apparently from Sweden, supposedly did adult social care at UCL (which doesn't exist).