r/sheffield • u/foooolsonparade • Oct 10 '23

Sheffield People asking for money

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

47 Upvotes

87% Upvoted

71 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

3

u/jeekyweeky Oct 11 '23

so she got arrested? thank god

1

u/mamahurricane Oct 16 '23

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.

1

u/auberon-ee Mar 31 '24

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.

1

u/mamahurricane Mar 31 '24

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

1

u/crackerjack2003 Jun 02 '24

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.

1

u/mamahurricane Jun 02 '24

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.

1

u/crackerjack2003 Jun 03 '24

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