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Does anyone know anything about these folks walking around Boston?

They pass you a trinket and then ask for money. Just curious.

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Comments

con artists. They will then pull out. book, try and write your name,then put a dollar amount next to it; a 'donation'. They pretend to speak English poorly, and pressure you to give 'donation'.

They're in NY,too; they most likely are up here from NY/NJ.

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They're in NYC, too. Must have found their way up here.

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Likely just a copycat type of scheme.

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They are known as the Fake Monk Mafia and they should be ignored if not shunned for their actions.

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They seem to arrive at the same time as the flocks of tourists from China in particular. If you go down by where the buses drop off, they seem to target the Asian tours. Probably some cultural thing that I don't understand.

Then they come up to Washington St. around noontime.

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At least these religious scam artists are quiet unlike the Jesus freaks screaming nonsense into microphones in downtown crossing, including in the subway station.

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The Jesus freaks don't want your money. I'll take a rant any day over people coming up to me and asking for cash (especially the clip board folk, but that is another talk for another day.)

I did encounter the Orange Line religious ranter the other day. The poor gal mistimed things, or just didn't know about "one track operation at Forest Hills Station." When she finished, we were sitting outside the station. She didn't quite know what to do.

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The Boiled Face Hell Guy was working the line at the Midnight Oil concert the other night. Rock and roll will send you straight to hell you know. All the people working as teachers and in social service and environmental fields were amused. Couple of ministers tried to discuss the issue with him.

Never once asked for money.

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I was very confused when they approached me in NYC, took their stupid trinket, signed their book so they would pray for me or something than they got all pissy when I did not give them money.

Scum bags.

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if they can break a hundred. When they start to reach I walk away.

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if only Sob Story Drug Addict going to Springfield had used this tactic instead, he would have been a lot more successful.

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Those who want Boston to be like NY just got their wish.

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Are they the ones who brought the tissue scam to the T?

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/crime-and-law/passengers-warned-of-tissu...

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A fellow was "selling" packs of tissues on an Orange line car tonight. Wonder whether he makes much money or whether this occupation feels degrading to him. But then I wonder if people who go through trash cans retrieving recyclable bottles feel any sense of dignity or self-respect in the way they earn some money.

There is so much cash flowing through out world. But so much is kept away from the people who need it.

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Picking cans is dignified - I wouldn't want to do it or any family members to have to do it but they are working, not begging.

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The Chinese people who retrieve cans were extensively covered in a Globe article some years ago. They are mostly Fujianese ex-farmers, and this is the easiest work they have ever done. We think of our grandma rooting around in trash bins; they think, "Oh, boy! I reap the crop without having to dig, plow,mcultivate or pull weeds!" Remember, they come from a country where people collect human waste every night to use as fertilizer.

The Trinket Trickers are akin -- possibly literally -- to the people in Europe who tie red strings around your finger or "find" gold rings on the street. In Paris the police call them "Roumanians", more polite, perhaps, than "Rom" or "Gitanes", which means "Gypsy", but Indont think we can say that here.

Again, the Globe ran an article more than a few years back on a colony of "G_____s" in Dorchester. The men did fake driveway and roof repair swindles while the women told fortunes. The story came up because they refused to send their kids to school. Today we have "home schooling" [sic] so it wouldn't even be an issue.

The imports from NY may be another clan or they may be another ethnicity entirely. I haven't run into them, but then I don't get out much. WQ

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It's all about perspective. I did can & bottle collecting for a while until one night when a overly zealous rent-a-cop confronted me and accused me of stealing important corporate documents. From an un locked trash bin next to the street. Silver spoon liberals may not understand but it's much more dignified in my opinion than claiming bennies, and obviously helps the environment. People seem to have a problem with anything that has the potential to remind them that their fortune is quite better than someone else's or that they might not be doing all they could to foster sustainability. People wondering about the Hare Krishnas and their trinket tricks should stop and consider if paying $2.50 for a small water that costs pennies to make or around $20 for some razor blades that cost a well known company only about ¢25 to make is much different. But we all do those things so there's no outrage possible.

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They are hare Krishna. That's how they fund their church, instead of shoving a donation basket in your face. They try to sell you a trinket same deal different method

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No, these guys are frauds

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