Police are working to learn the identity of a con artist who is targeting important Rabbonim in the capital.
In one case, the con artist, dressed as a chareidi Jew with a long white beard, entered the home of a “prominent rav” and explained he is collecting funds for the needy. At one point, he spoke about a new sefer and then asked if the rav can cash a $100 bill, which he drew from his pocket. The rabbi cashed the bill, thereby unknowingly revealing the location of his funds.
The thief then finds a way to compel the rabbi to leave the room for a short time, during which times he takes the tzedaka cash from the rav’s desk, in this case, amounting to NIS 8,000.
There were two more cases reported, one in the Mattersdorf area of the capital, in which the man requests a letter of support and a cup of tea, compelling the rav to leave the room, once again permitting the man to take the cash.
(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)
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9 Responses
Another day in Yerushalayim! Things don’t change. I was walking along Rechov Malchei Yisroel, when this “chareidi” looking man begged me to lend him money so that he can get to the hospital as his wife was in labour. He gave me his cell number and promised to pay me back. Well, if you are reading this, I am still waiting but I won’t hold my breath.
Impossible. How could a “prominant rav” be fooled by an imposter? If he wasn’t an imposter, how could a “real charedi” have done that? Mema nifshach.
To #2:
Your head is screwed on tightly but backwards. A prominent Rav cannot be taken in by a con artist? In order to be prominent you have to have ruach hakodesh? As to your second brilliant question, are you so naive to think that there are no ganavim with long beards? Wake up from your slumber!!!!
mema nifshach on the internet.
amazing!
although it’s not exactly a MN,
it’s still worthy of note
Eli Teitelbaum a’h worked on this (tirelessly).
He stressed that people should know who they give tzedaka to. The scam artists have more than doubled as they know frum yidden are easy prey. This is not just bad news – to look on the bright side… would this be happening to us if we were not balei tzedaka. Just try to be more cognizant – and know to whom and where you are giving your tzedaka. I had a prominent tall white bearded man do a number on me years ago and that is when I contacted Eli Teitelbaum. Yet another man collecting for “victims of terror” has receipt books printed with addresses in several countries. The people who allow him to use their address are also victims. They actually believe his gut wrenching stories and allow him the use of their address. He has been at this for years.
On and on the story goes…..it is our responsibility to be careful..
Stealing and trickery is never okay but how sad. It is hard to balance being respectful in tzedakah with protecting yourself.
We personally know a religious Jew who has mental challenges. He seems to have many very “creative” ideas about money which most of us do not agree with, including what he is entitled to.
It is quite difficult & touchy trying to be respectful of all the people and halachas involved in such a situation.
We have asked shailas and worked out arrangements. Sometimes I am frustrated at what still happens, but it helps to see that unfortunately he is really suffering in his confusion.
One thing we never do though- we never actually lend money. We may say it is a loan for the dignity of the other person, but it comes from our tzedakah account, and we tell them that: “No pressure- whenever you can pay us back, great- then the money will get used to help someone else”(Which is true)
We have accepted that we can not lend our non-tithe money; we absolutely could not afford to not have it for hardly any time at all, and such a loan could not help but cause tensions which are osser.
I was once robbed of two pushkes, but I don’t know who took them; I am somewhat more careful now, but I wasn’t careless before. We can only do our best, and HaShem will have to sort out the rest.
Kol Tov
Sholom ber your not the only one,the exact same thing happened to me.It`s very sad.
This is nothing new. The gemarah says that we have to thank the fakers for if not for them we would get punished if we didn’t give to every poor person who comes to us.
When we first became observant we thought everyone with a yarmulke was a tzaddik, then at some point after seeing certain things we began to think that everyone with a yarmulke was a rasha. Baruch Hashem at some point later we struck a balance and became a little more mature about it recognizing that there are some bad apples in every bunch. THen we were neighbors with a divorced Hassidic man (I wish I could write his name to warn everyone as he is still lurking around Brooklyn) who literally stole $600 from us… Actually he borrowed to repay it the next day and a over a year later we are still waiting. He has also stolen money in the same way from a gemach. Ok, nothing happens unless Hashem allows it and it was clearly a kapporah, but still this kind of stuff does happen. If you only knew how frum this man looked. We should have been suspicious when he asked us to cash a very tattered looking thousand dollar check at 10 o’clock at night because he just needed cash and … we could just deposit it in the morning…Yea, sure. B.H. we did not do it, although we actually felt bad that we did not help him.