Beware of Mirror Scam in Italy

Mici

Mici

Joined
Feb 23, 2015
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2015
We have just had an incident in Italy and a scam tried .
We were leaving a agritourismo in puglia this morning when a alfa romeo sped past us and then stopped on the side of the road further
on. As we passed him we heard a loud bang, we carried on slowly and the alfa romeo caught up with us and honked his horn and flashed his lights. We know not to stop , but we did as there was only one person in the car. He maintained that we had broken his wing mirror and pointed to a large dark mark towards the rear on the side of the van. We know that we were no where near him as we passed. Immediately we thought this was a scam. Looking at his mirror the outer casing was fine, but he did have a shattered lens. There was no indentation on our van and the black mark was removable. When confronted and told we were no where near him and to get stuffed. He turned and made a hasty exit before we could mention polizia ,funny that!!
I phoned the agritourismo and told her what had happened , she mentioned that this had happened to another motorhome a month ago. She was apologetic and said someone in the village will know who it was by my description and information.
I have posted this just to inform everyone that this well known scam is still rip... beware.
we will not let it spoil our holiday in Italy and the next ,very friendly, site owner at the cart sosta in matera has polished the mark out for us, whilst muttering expletives about his fellow country men scam artists!!

20230916_115742.jpg
 
Tombola said:
Madness...

So how did the mark get there. Do they hold a stick ot something out
Click to expand...
I forgot to mention that the alfa romeo was white with white wing mirror casings. Yes, we belive he stuck something out of the car window, which was open as we passed him. Look at the mark, it starts low and then rises as though our propulsion dragged the stick up wards as we passed. It is a rubber mark.
 
Sounds like he should have had a white stick, not a black one or change his car to a black one so the mark matches his car. Or get a brain. 😂

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How low down would his wing mirror needed to have been for that...think he needs to check his aim if he wants to be believed!
Glad you're OK and didn't rise to their bait - safe travels
 
Mici said:
We have just had an incident in Italy and a scam tried .
We were leaving a agritourismo in puglia this morning when a alfa romeo sped past us and then stopped on the side of the road further
on. As we passed him we heard a loud bang, we carried on slowly and the alfa romeo caught up with us and honked his horn and flashed his lights. We know not to stop , but we did as there was only one person in the car. He maintained that we had broken his wing mirror and pointed to a large dark mark towards the rear on the side of the van. We know that we were no where near him as we passed. Immediately we thought this was a scam. Looking at his mirror the outer casing was fine, but he did have a shattered lens. There was no indentation on our van and the black mark was removable. When confronted and told we were no where near him and to get stuffed. He turned and made a hasty exit before we could mention polizia ,funny that!!
I phoned the agritourismo and told her what had happened , she mentioned that this had happened to another motorhome a month ago. She was apologetic and said someone in the village will know who it was by my description and information.
I have posted this just to inform everyone that this well known scam is still rip... beware.
we will not let it spoil our holiday in Italy and the next ,very friendly, site owner at the cart sosta in matera has polished the mark out for us, whilst muttering expletives about his fellow country men scam artists!!

View attachment 809756
Click to expand...
Where is matera did you stay ?

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Same thing done to my son's van while in Sicily last year! Think they used a stick out of the window and which actually damaged the side of his van. They picked the wrong person, told them to go to the police with him, they soon backed off and departed. He still found it very unsettling though!
 
If anyone tried that with us they'd end up with the stick stuck up their nether regions and be doing an impression of a lolly!!!
 
Mici said:
We have just had an incident in Italy and a scam tried .
We were leaving a agritourismo in puglia this morning when a alfa romeo sped past us and then stopped on the side of the road further
on. As we passed him we heard a loud bang, we carried on slowly and the alfa romeo caught up with us and honked his horn and flashed his lights. We know not to stop , but we did as there was only one person in the car. He maintained that we had broken his wing mirror and pointed to a large dark mark towards the rear on the side of the van. We know that we were no where near him as we passed. Immediately we thought this was a scam. Looking at his mirror the outer casing was fine, but he did have a shattered lens. There was no indentation on our van and the black mark was removable. When confronted and told we were no where near him and to get stuffed. He turned and made a hasty exit before we could mention polizia ,funny that!!
I phoned the agritourismo and told her what had happened , she mentioned that this had happened to another motorhome a month ago. She was apologetic and said someone in the village will know who it was by my description and information.
I have posted this just to inform everyone that this well known scam is still rip... beware.
we will not let it spoil our holiday in Italy and the next ,very friendly, site owner at the cart sosta in matera has polished the mark out for us, whilst muttering expletives about his fellow country men scam artists!!

View attachment 809756
Click to expand...
Maybe he needs a black eye

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A similar accident happened to us, on the A1 between Bologna and Florence on the 6 august: we decided to stop and as we speak fluent Italian, told the guys (middle age couple) to "get lost" and that we had their manoeuvres recorded on the van's camera. They made no claim and disappeared. Sadly a mile or so down the road we saw them stopping a car with a Dutch reg plate: as it was a small emergency area in the middle of road work we could stop and alert the guys but we called the police and gave the details of the scammers including the reg plate and offered to share a video where their faces are clearly visible. Police said they would investigate but never heard from them
Clockwork
 
Mici said:
We have just had an incident in Italy and a scam tried .
We were leaving a agritourismo in puglia this morning when a alfa romeo sped past us and then stopped on the side of the road further
on. As we passed him we heard a loud bang, we carried on slowly and the alfa romeo caught up with us and honked his horn and flashed his lights. We know not to stop , but we did as there was only one person in the car. He maintained that we had broken his wing mirror and pointed to a large dark mark towards the rear on the side of the van. We know that we were no where near him as we passed. Immediately we thought this was a scam. Looking at his mirror the outer casing was fine, but he did have a shattered lens. There was no indentation on our van and the black mark was removable. When confronted and told we were no where near him and to get stuffed. He turned and made a hasty exit before we could mention polizia ,funny that!!
I phoned the agritourismo and told her what had happened , she mentioned that this had happened to another motorhome a month ago. She was apologetic and said someone in the village will know who it was by my description and information.
I have posted this just to inform everyone that this well known scam is still rip... beware.
we will not let it spoil our holiday in Italy and the next ,very friendly, site owner at the cart sosta in matera has polished the mark out for us, whilst muttering expletives about his fellow country men scam artists!!

View attachment 809756
Click to expand...
We had a similar experience in Spain a few years ago, an almighty bang sounded like in the habitation area as a lorry overtook us, wife looked around and couldn’t see anything amiss, I checked in my mirror and all seemed well, the motorhome was driving ok, so we just carried on driving and didn’t stop until our destination, further inspection and nothing was found. Maybe the lorry backfired by allowing a build up of fuel in the silencer and then ignited it.
 
We were flagged down in Spain but made it very obvious we were filming them on my wife’s phone and they buggered off. Make sure your seen to be filming them as they don’t like it.

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Mici said:
We have just had an incident in Italy and a scam tried .
We were leaving a agritourismo in puglia this morning when a alfa romeo sped past us and then stopped on the side of the road further
on. As we passed him we heard a loud bang, we carried on slowly and the alfa romeo caught up with us and honked his horn and flashed his lights. We know not to stop , but we did as there was only one person in the car. He maintained that we had broken his wing mirror and pointed to a large dark mark towards the rear on the side of the van. We know that we were no where near him as we passed. Immediately we thought this was a scam. Looking at his mirror the outer casing was fine, but he did have a shattered lens. There was no indentation on our van and the black mark was removable. When confronted and told we were no where near him and to get stuffed. He turned and made a hasty exit before we could mention polizia ,funny that!!
I phoned the agritourismo and told her what had happened , she mentioned that this had happened to another motorhome a month ago. She was apologetic and said someone in the village will know who it was by my description and information.
I have posted this just to inform everyone that this well known scam is still rip... beware.
we will not let it spoil our holiday in Italy and the next ,very friendly, site owner at the cart sosta in matera has polished the mark out for us, whilst muttering expletives about his fellow country men scam artists!!

View attachment 809756
Click to expand...
This isn’t just an issue “abroad”
A few weeks ago I was attending a festival nr Stockport and whilst driving down a narrow road with parked vehicles on one side I heard a loud bang and saw that my passenger mirror was folded back
I knew I was nowhere near any parked vehicle
As I arrived at the festival entrance two men appeared in a white van and began shouting through my window demanding cash for the clearly old mirror they had in their hands
When I wouldn’t pay one of them ripped my mirror off
They then pulled their t shirts over their faces and drove off quickly in a van with no plates
 
I think this may have hapened to us, Italian autostrada last year. Driving along, heard a bang, car horn and lights behind followed us for a couple of kilometeres. We pulled over at the first refuge and he claimed we had drifted into him. black mark on the van, easily removable, and he had a destroyed wing mirror. Lifted €100 from us. When I checked the dash cam much later we had not gone out of our lane.

Live and learn.
 
Lol, if he sped past you it would be his fault if he hit you!
 
Wilki2312 said:
This isn’t just an issue “abroad”
A few weeks ago I was attending a festival nr Stockport and whilst driving down a narrow road with parked vehicles on one side I heard a loud bang and saw that my passenger mirror was folded back
I knew I was nowhere near any parked vehicle
As I arrived at the festival entrance two men appeared in a white van and began shouting through my window demanding cash for the clearly old mirror they had in their hands
When I wouldn’t pay one of them ripped my mirror off
They then pulled their t shirts over their faces and drove off quickly in a van with no plates
Click to expand...
Pie keys?
Mike

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Jewellbags said:
Heard good things about that place before
Click to expand...
Yes, its a very good stop to see Matera. The owner will go out if his way to help and the whole family works hard to make our stay comfortable , we were up under the trees in the shade. He dose a shuttle service into and back to Matera and gives everyone a talk and a marked map of the best view points, things to see and eating establishments in his home town of Matera, of which he is very proud.
Loos, showers, chemical disposing point, cafe, bread, all clean. I think he has made himself a rod for his own back as he works very hard ,always with a smile and something to say , but he is getting more and more MHs in every day,!
I can not recommend the sosta enough if you are in the area.
 
We had an identical incident to the OP in Italy in May. As the driver approached my door I saw him 'stroke' the side of the van with his fingers. I closed my window and drove off to the next town and on examination found a large black wax crayon mark where he had stroked.

I've fitted front and rear dash cams now.
 
Mici said:
We have just had an incident in Italy and a scam tried .
We were leaving a agritourismo in puglia this morning when a alfa romeo sped past us and then stopped on the side of the road further
on. As we passed him we heard a loud bang, we carried on slowly and the alfa romeo caught up with us and honked his horn and flashed his lights. We know not to stop , but we did as there was only one person in the car. He maintained that we had broken his wing mirror and pointed to a large dark mark towards the rear on the side of the van. We know that we were no where near him as we passed. Immediately we thought this was a scam. Looking at his mirror the outer casing was fine, but he did have a shattered lens. There was no indentation on our van and the black mark was removable. When confronted and told we were no where near him and to get stuffed. He turned and made a hasty exit before we could mention polizia ,funny that!!
I phoned the agritourismo and told her what had happened , she mentioned that this had happened to another motorhome a month ago. She was apologetic and said someone in the village will know who it was by my description and information.
I have posted this just to inform everyone that this well known scam is still rip... beware.
we will not let it spoil our holiday in Italy and the next ,very friendly, site owner at the cart sosta in matera has polished the mark out for us, whilst muttering expletives about his fellow country men scam artists!!

View attachment 809756
Click to expand...
Same thing happened to us in Spain, near San Pere Pescador. After 3 days of uneventful peaceful motoring five minutes from our intended campsite a small white van passed us. There was an almighty bang, I stopped immediately and the other guy drove on for a while and then reversed back. He gesticulated at his wing mirror which was evidently damaged but we had no signs of any contact on our van. I became suspicious when I noticed that our wing mirror cleared the roof of his vehicle by a good four inches and so I knew that hadn’t caused the damage. I mentioned the word “Police” in English when he duly jumped into his vehicle and disappeared in a cloud of dust. Beware of scammers.
 
Serendipity2 said:
Same thing happened to us in Spain, near San Pere Pescador. After 3 days of uneventful peaceful motoring five minutes from our intended campsite a small white van passed us. There was an almighty bang, I stopped immediately and the other guy drove on for a while and then reversed back. He gesticulated at his wing mirror which was evidently damaged but we had no signs of any contact on our van. I became suspicious when I noticed that our wing mirror cleared the roof of his vehicle by a good four inches and so I knew that hadn’t caused the damage. I mentioned the word “Police” in English when he duly jumped into his vehicle and disappeared in a cloud of dust. Beware of scammers.
Click to expand...

Mici said:
We have just had an incident in Italy and a scam tried .
We were leaving a agritourismo in puglia this morning when a alfa romeo sped past us and then stopped on the side of the road further
on. As we passed him we heard a loud bang, we carried on slowly and the alfa romeo caught up with us and honked his horn and flashed his lights. We know not to stop , but we did as there was only one person in the car. He maintained that we had broken his wing mirror and pointed to a large dark mark towards the rear on the side of the van. We know that we were no where near him as we passed. Immediately we thought this was a scam. Looking at his mirror the outer casing was fine, but he did have a shattered lens. There was no indentation on our van and the black mark was removable. When confronted and told we were no where near him and to get stuffed. He turned and made a hasty exit before we could mention polizia ,funny that!!
I phoned the agritourismo and told her what had happened , she mentioned that this had happened to another motorhome a month ago. She was apologetic and said someone in the village will know who it was by my description and information.
I have posted this just to inform everyone that this well known scam is still rip... beware.
we will not let it spoil our holiday in Italy and the next ,very friendly, site owner at the cart sosta in matera has polished the mark out for us, whilst muttering expletives about his fellow country men scam artists!!

View attachment 809756
Click to expand...
We fell for a similar scam in Tuscany a few years ago. Found black mark on the van and a broken black wing mirror on his car. Eventually parted with a few Euros. I used to live in Italy a long time ago and speak passable Italian and have "been around" so very out of character to have been fooled but I couldn't think of an explanation at the time!! Must have been the good Chianti!

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