Petrol scam runs on empty

A Manukau woman encouraged a young girl to hurl litter at newspaper staff asking questions about a petrol money scam. Photo / Herald on Sunday

Run out of petrol? For some it's not an embarrassing oversight, but just a way to scam a two-bit living.

The Herald on Sunday has received more than 60 complaints about a scam in the Auckland region - and rife in Botany - by con-artists asking for money who claim they have run out of petrol.

In many cases the scammers claim to be from out of town (either Palmerston North or New Plymouth) and say they don't have access to money because an ATM machine has eaten their card.

Children often accompany the scammers, and on occasion a sob story about a sick relative in a far-off hospital is also proffered.

But this is hardly high stakes fraud - the takings often only involve coins.

Three people approached in this manner provided identical licence plate numbers of a car involved.

The vehicle, a silver Mitsubishi minivan, is registered to a 46-year-old woman from Manukau's Clover Park.

The Herald on Sunday visited the woman to ask if she often had problems running out of petrol.

"Oh yeah," she said. "I helped a man a couple of weeks ago from Palmerston North."

Asked directly if she was involved in running an out-of-petrol scam, the woman denied the charge and spouted obscenities.

She said she could not speak further because her cat had just given birth to kittens - at least a half-dozen cats were spotted on her property.

After disguising herself with a hat and dark sunglasses and clutching a can of fly-spray and a chunky back high-heeled shoe, the woman advanced into the street.

She was accompanied by a young girl who was encouraged by her guardian to hurl empty cans and plastic bottles at the newspaper's staff and their vehicle.

The woman lunged forward in an attempt to spray a reporter in the eyes and hurled the shoe at a photographer.

She said she would sue and complain to police.

A man who identified himself as the woman's cousin subsequently called on behalf of her to clarify her story: she had asked for money for petrol in the past, he said, but "she's saying it was genuine".

Asked whether it was "genuine" to run out of petrol at least three times in Botany in the past six weeks, the cousin had no answer. One complainant, who recorded the woman's licence plate number, decided to remain anonymous after hearing of her brandishing shoes and fly spray.

She said the woman was accompanied by a male, making for a low-rent Bonnie and Clyde, during a scam run at the Botany Countdown carpark. She gave $2 to them in early August, but declined to donate when approached by the same couple using the same story four weeks later.

She warned people to exercise caution and scepticism if approached and described the male scammer as in his mid-50s, with white grey hair and a ruddy complexion.

"He was a kind of rough-looking Santa, but without the facial hair," she said.

Ivy Ross, who was almost taken in by another scammer, said the practice was unconscionable. She was approached near the Botany town centre with a sob story from a man who asked for $20 to pay for petrol to visit a sick relative at North Shore Hospital.

After discussing the approach with a petrol-station attendant, Ross said the scammers noticed her having the conversation and sped off in their car.

"You get taken out of your comfort zone, and I felt awful and gullible," she said.

Anne Corbet, who was approached by yet another scammer at Botany Junction, was shocked to hear that the out-of-petrol con was so widespread. "Lord, how many of them are there?" she said.

The Herald on Sunday understands the scam is being conducted across the whole Auckland region but seems particularly bad in Botany.

Complaints have been made about approaches in Takapuna, Mt Wellington, New Lynn, the Auckland Domain, Manurewa, Papatoetoe and Newmarket.

The first complainant said the scam was souring the milk of human kindness: "I know if I ran out of petrol I'd need help - but because of this people will be suspicious."