A Callezioni Italian man called himself M. Alfonsino Irvine California

This Italian guy stopped me at my work parking lot. Kind of a pudgy guy with dark-colored hair wearing slacks, ress shoes and a black jacket. Didn't look like he kept himself up too well like he drank and forgot to shower or something. He looked about in his late 30s or early 40s. Around 5'6-5'10 and about 175-190ish lbs. Can't remember his hair color but I believe it was black? He had 2 sets of beads with a cross on it and claimed he was catholic. Had an Italian accent but at the same time I'm not sure... seemed like he has been here for a decent while because he still understood what he needed to and feigned ignorance on questions he didn't want to answer. Accent was bad but it wasn't completely horrible. He seemed to say ciao properly and "adverdici" or something which means... "until we meet again"? THIS GUY IS NOT A PRO... if you stop yourself and think logically then things don't match up. Even though this makes me looks like a sucker... it is okay because I probably deserve it for not thinking.

It also seems like this guy has been scamming people for a while as his repertoire of tricks seems to be changing each person he meets. As he claims he is catholic and also that he wants to go home to see his mother. He also correctly pointed out that there is an Armani Collezioni which is new in South Coast Plaza. I have no clue about fashion... I don't wear designer clothes and so any design on the clothes could've fooled me. I just wish I had asked someone about the whole thing before I forked over money to the "poor" guy.

So his story is that he claimed he drank too much while gambling and a woman he was hanging out with robbed him of all his money and cards. The guy asked for help claiming that he was returning from a fashion get-together at South Coast Plaza and had 3 jackets that felt real that he wanted to donate because he couldn't bring it back with him to Italy due to import/export taxes. Said the things were valued at $11,000... I was thinking at the time that it didn't matter how much they were worth.

I felt bad for the guy because he kept on saying he would sleep in the streets if he didn't change his flight. He had a passport, plane ticket and a whole bunch of other information. His business card was also a fake and poorly made but I didn't bother to notice it because he seemed desperate. I didn't really care for the jackets and tried to return it to him but he insisted that i take it because he couldn't take it anyways. So I handed him about $500 which I got from the bank and wished him luck.

He also kept on insisting he would wire me money by Western Union even though I said it was okay. I'm a sucker for helping people and I want to pursue this guy as much as possible with what I have. I just find it sad he claims himself as a religious man and scams people by messing with their charitable nature. I don't wish the man harm... but I want him to know he is carrying dirty money... things won't be so nice if I happen to find him again...

If you know about this... please post... it would be good to put together the information to try to stop this guy. I also hope that the honest and kind people who are victims don't stop caring about other people's problems. This is the 2nd time I was scammed (1st was an internet incident)... I will definitely screen the next person that comes along to tell the truth (this guy had red flags everywhere... his story was bogus... but I believed him because he looked desperate and his story was so bogus I couldn't believe he would use it). Don't let these people stop you from being charitable... there are people out there who really do need help and are desperate!!!!

Please Contact me if you have any information....

Jeff
Irvine, California
U.S.A.