A scam-but what.

[parkie]

A few days ago I was walking along a minor one way street in our town centre. Hardly any traffic. No-one else around that I could see.
A smart, modern car, (missed the make etc) pulled up beside me and the driver who I guessed to be East European about 30 ish and well dressed, asked me for directions which I gave him.
He then thanked me very much, told me he worked for a Swiss watch company and produced a box containing a man's and a woman's silver watches with a price tag of £299 and another man's gold watch in a box with a price tag of £199. He handed them over to me through the open car window and my immediate thought was, "He now wants me to buy these," but no. He told me to take them for helping him. Five hundred quids worth of watches just for giving directions? I don't think so.
I told him I could not accept them but he kept pressing them on me then came the 'sting'.
"Perhaps you can now do me a favour," he said. "I need some money for petrol."
I told him I had no money on me and he kept insisting but in the end accepted my explanation, took the boxes of watches out of my hands and drove off.
Now, my question are these. What if I had said thanks very much for the watches and walked off. Would he have chased after me?
Were the watches really working or just shells?
Had I produced my wallet to give him money, would I have actually got the watches or was there a friend of his in the area ready to mug me?
I don't suppose I'll ever know.
Anyone else had a similar experience?

[Mosaic]

This is a version of the old designer leather jacket scam, beloved of scammers in Rome.
You have to logicise that the cash they will lever out of a gullible mark is more than the value of the tat they are offering.
So regarding these watches....what do you really think?

[parkie]

Thanks Mosaic. Had to be a scam.
Besides, the only cash I had on me was £20 for my dental check-up - and he certainly wasn't getting that!!!!!

[LazyGun]

I remember the designer leather jacket scam, several times being offered "designer" leather jackets in the South Mimms carpark, with the seller spinning a story that this was excess stock from an exhibition he had just attended. Closer examination of the jackets showed they were cheap knock offs worth a fraction of his asking price.

As to this business with the watches - it does sound like an attempted scam, probably shells of watches. If a deal seems too good to be true, and there is a time pressure put on the transaction, almost certainly a attempt to deprive you of your hard earned cash ;)