His stamped (used) Italian passort read Vincenzo Arena
He even offered me to stay with him in Italy!
Well dressed italian man in about 48 years old stopped to ask me for directions because he was lost. Claimed to have left Atlantic City Expo fashion show. It was 2:30 PM. A very dark complexion, and green/brownishd eyes he also appears to be Italian that speaks Italian, spanish and broken english. Said he had to make it to airport by 5:00 pm to return his RED Nissan Murano with New Jersey Plates. He even showed me what appeared to be a rental agreement with AVIS for $660, passport, and gave me a business card 15 minutes apart.
He showed me his 'Patek' watch, and '$300' tie. He wanted to know how much money I had on me. He insisted that if I did not have enough money, that we could go to an ATM together.
After agreeing to follow me to the ATM, Again, he was well dressed with shirt, tie, custom shoes, gold watch, etc. He was believable. I agreed to see what he had. He also kept saying 'I am a business man, you are business man no? I don't need extra money because I have a lot in Euros, creditcards etc. All that He wants is to pay for the rental car without the need to expend His money. He said if he takes the goods back too Italy he'll get hit for the customs taxes. So, he would give me them for a fraction of the price.
He took from the back seat 2 - 3 bags of what appeared to be Reportage Armani designer leather and suede jackets with original tags hologram foil stamped and all. They seemed of good quality, he later insists to bring the jackets to my car. He show me 3 medium sized jackets and the ones that He put into my car where small size.
He then proceeded to trump them up to be worth up to 9 thousand dollars. Said he did not want to take them back to Italy because the import tax he would have to pay would be too great. He said make me an offer. Very insistent and pushy talking fast. I said I did not need any clothes and any offer I would make would be too low.
My phone ringing off the hook because my girlfriend could not get through while I was with him. Under this pressure I offered him $200. For 5 articles of clothing he showed me in his car. He played not being offended no matter the offer, but was and finally said $400 would be enough. I wanted to do was get away from him really but went on with it. I said I had only little money, but he kept on insisting it was a great opportunity. He eventually followed me to an ATM where I got the other money.
Big mistake. It should be noted that at this point he placed the clothes in the trunk of my car. He additionally counted the money short by $100, but I was afraid to refuse the extra $100. He tricked me by placing other clothing in the trunk.
So, I finally parted with $400 for 4 articles of clothing, thinking it was 5 pieces of good merchandise, all supposedly leather.
Once I handed the money over he sped off, asking again for directions. As I see he never needed my directions to Newark Airport in the first place. All the clothing had foil stamped tags, plastic bags with the name 'Collezioni A.', and even larger seudo cloth bags with the same name printed on them. A report will shortly be filed with the local police department and the clothes with tags I will photographed if they have a police website.
I encourage anyone who was scammed by this scum to report it to their local police department as well so they can build a file of information which they can use to catch this person (s). It is only a matter of time before he is caught. I hope for his sake he does not expose himself to direct contact with anyone he scams.
I thought i was being rewarded for being a good samaritan but i was being ripped-off for being a fool! BEWARE OF WELL DRESSED ITALIANS PEDDELING ARMANI JACKETS.
Fernando
South Amboy, New Jersey
U.S.A.
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