# Woman Lends Credit Card to Homeless Man o.O



## Ffzzynxnynxxyninx (Aug 13, 2010)

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/manhattan/reunion_with_amex_angel_dFCLsWzzXEj2mwhFn6g2IJ

I'm having mixed thoughts on this. First of all, yes it was very kind of this ad executive to loan her credit card to a homeless man...Secondly, it was very stupid of this ad executive to lend her credit card to a homeless man lol

I mean, come on, I'm all for random acts of kindness, but putting yourself at risk like that is not the way to do it. I can't help but think this lady has a little too much faith in humanity. You've gotta protect yourself.

Oh well, it was still a nice gesture, and he did return the card.


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## Cam (Aug 13, 2010)

My friend sent me a link to that today

I would never give my card out like that O_O

I dont even use mine for myself


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## Dan. (Aug 13, 2010)

Hmm, she obviously trusted him, so why not, I mean you can just cancel it if it is stolen. Good on her and the homeless guy!


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## Ffzzynxnynxxyninx (Aug 13, 2010)

Dan. said:


> Hmm, she obviously trusted him, so why not, I mean you can just cancel it if it is stolen. Good on her and the homeless guy!


 
I guess, this just seems like that 1 time out of 100 that things worked out well for both people...I can't imagine a majority of homeless people not taking advantage of the card, and I wouldn't blame them! You've gotta survive somehow.


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## Eske (Aug 13, 2010)

I think the woman is a sweetheart, and I adore her for what she did.  And of course, the homeless man is also a wonderful person -- he only bought $25 worth of stuff, with access to so much more right at his fingertips.  Two very special people, right there.  c:


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## Wolf-Bone (Aug 13, 2010)

Pianowolfy said:


> I guess, this just seems like that 1 time out of 100 that things worked out well for both people...I can't imagine a majority of homeless people not taking advantage of the card, and I wouldn't blame them! You've gotta survive somehow.


 
On the other hand, not _every_ homeless person is _completely_ screwed up psychologically, or a drug addict/alcoholic, or a criminal, or anything that compels a person to take advantage of whoever they can. This person has just made the homeless population look a lot less inherently fucked up and worthy of scorn just for being where they are, and that's as important to survival as money.


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## Ffzzynxnynxxyninx (Aug 13, 2010)

Eske said:


> I think the woman is a sweetheart, and I adore her for what she did.  And of course, the homeless man is also a wonderful person -- he only bought $25 worth of stuff, with access to so much more right at his fingertips.  Two very special people, right there.  c:



^^ *agrees*


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## Randy-Darkshade (Aug 13, 2010)

I'd rather hand a homeless person some cash rather than a credit card.


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## Tycho (Aug 13, 2010)

Ad executive, she was probably rich enough that it didn't matter and the card had a spending limit I bet.


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## Lobar (Aug 13, 2010)

What is a homeless man gonna buy on credit anyways?  You can't buy a place to live on credit, so pretty much some warm clothes and food.


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## Randy-Darkshade (Aug 13, 2010)

Lobar said:


> What is a homeless man gonna buy on credit anyways?  You can't buy a place to live on credit, so pretty much some warm clothes and food.


 
I think he'd be grateful just to have those.


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## slydude851 (Aug 13, 2010)

Well since you can't buy weed and the like with credit cards, it's kayy!


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## ArielMT (Aug 13, 2010)

That's an exceptional amount of trust to show a stranger.  He could've drawn a cash advance with the card at an ATM; that's the way most obvious to me to abuse that kind of trust.

What it comes down to, to me, is how any amount of trust is earned.  If someone's just down on his luck, hitting rock bottom, and looking to get back up and be self-sufficient again, then he's going to present himself differently than someone in the same place who's unwilling to take anything but free hand-outs and abuse the system, and he's going to earn a different amount of trust.  It could happen after months or years, or it could happen in an instant.


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## Wolf-Bone (Aug 13, 2010)

ArielMT said:


> That's an exceptional amount of trust to show a stranger.  He could've drawn a cash advance with the card at an ATM; that's the way most obvious to me to abuse that kind of trust.
> 
> What it comes down to, to me, is how any amount of trust is earned.  If someone's just down on his luck, hitting rock bottom, and looking to get back up and be self-sufficient again, then he's going to present himself differently than someone in the same place who's unwilling to take anything but free hand-outs and abuse the system, and he's going to earn a different amount of trust.  It could happen after months or years, or it could happen in an instant.


 
I'm sure there's some people out there that are like a real life Sherlock Holmes and can tell a person's intentions based entirely on the way they present themselves, the way they talk and their body language and all that, but most people simply are not that good at reading people, and what's worse, we're living in an era of declining social skills, so it works both ways. A person could have the best intentions in the world and come across as a total sketchbag. The *only* person I ever knew was legit, it was because they admitted they were a crack addict and took me up on my offer to buy them some food since I was headed that way anyway. The real scum would try to weave some story that would go in circles most likely, and unless you're a complete idiot, they're not getting your money. The problem is, a lot of people's communication skills are so bad, they could talk like that and be telling the truth, but would I trust them? Hell no.

Frankly you sound like the prime target for some kind of scam "oh, they presented themselves the right way, so they wouldn't try to run off with my money". I know, I been there - and chased people down while they was running and gave 'em a lil' somethin' to remember me by :3


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## Lobar (Aug 13, 2010)

RandyDarkshade said:


> I think he'd be grateful just to have those.


 
Yeah, I'm just saying it's not too much of a risk.


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## ArielMT (Aug 13, 2010)

Wolf-Bone said:


> Frankly you sound like the prime target for some kind of scam "oh, they presented themselves the right way, so they wouldn't try to run off with my money". I know, I been there - and chased people down while they was running and gave 'em a lil' somethin' to remember me by :3


 
I'm far too aware of confidence scams to be taken advantage of like that.  For the same reason, I don't have the amount of trust as this lady did, to just surrender a card to a stranger.

Another thought occurred to me.  If she gave her card to a stranger and found out that her trust had been abused, would she not have been able to dispute the charges and cancel the card?  It's a hassle, but is it possible she could've been aware and thought the potential hassle worth the risk?


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## Ffzzynxnynxxyninx (Aug 14, 2010)

ArielMT said:


> I'm far too aware of confidence scams to be taken advantage of like that.  For the same reason, I don't have the amount of trust as this lady did, to just surrender a card to a stranger.
> 
> Another thought occurred to me.  If she gave her card to a stranger and found out that her trust had been abused, would she not have been able to dispute the charges and cancel the card?  It's a hassle, but is it possible she could've been aware and thought the potential hassle worth the risk?



Actually I'm not sure - she never specified to him the amount that he was allowed to use (that I know of) and she willingly lent him the card. He could potentially have bought thousands of dollars worth of stuff.

My point is, this is not a case of a stolen card, so I'm not sure that it would actually be considered fraud, and we all know credit card companies are ruthless as it is. I don't think they would be that generous to her. (although I'm not entirely certain about what the law says about this)


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## Ratte (Aug 14, 2010)

That's really cool.  Sure don't see something like this happen often enough.


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## Jashwa (Aug 14, 2010)

Wolf-Bone said:


> On the other hand, not _every_ homeless person is _completely_ screwed up psychologically, or a drug addict/alcoholic, or a criminal, or anything that compels a person to take advantage of whoever they can. This person has just made the homeless population look a lot less inherently fucked up and worthy of scorn just for being where they are, and that's as important to survival as money.


 [this]. That's the best part of this story. You NEVER see ANY homeless people get good publicity like that. Maybe people will stop assuming that they're all horrible people. 

As for the woman, it wasn't a stupid move. If he took it and spent a whole bunch of money, then she could just report it stolen and get the money reimbursed from the bank's insurance.


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## Ffzzynxnynxxyninx (Aug 14, 2010)

Jashwa said:


> [this]. That's the best part of this story. You NEVER see ANY homeless people get good publicity like that. Maybe people will stop assuming that they're all horrible people.
> 
> As for the woman, it wasn't a stupid move. If he took it and spent a whole bunch of money, then she could just report it stolen and get the money reimbursed from the bank's insurance.


 
Of course they're not all horrible people. But lending your credit card to ANYBODY you don't know is a terrible idea. It wouldn't go over well with the credit card company when you call them and explain that you lent your card to a random homeless person...


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## Tycho (Aug 14, 2010)

Jashwa said:


> [this]. That's the best part of this story. You NEVER see ANY homeless people get good publicity like that. Maybe people will stop assuming that they're all horrible people.


 
Especially in light of the serious downturns the job market has taken in the US.  People lose jobs, lose homes, lose cars and can't get them back.  They're *people* like the rest of us, just decidedly less fortunate.

(OT: they ought to set up Hoovervilles in the lobbies of corporate HQs, maybe on the floor of the NYSE too.  That'd be funny.)


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## ArielMT (Aug 14, 2010)

Pianowolfy said:


> Actually I'm not sure - she never specified to him the amount that he was allowed to use (that I know of) and she willingly lent him the card. He could potentially have bought thousands of dollars worth of stuff.



Aye, but for an act of generosity on this scale, it doesn't matter how much is spent but on what.  For example, if he bought a single $5 bottle of liquor with the card, that would've been many times worse than buying $1,000-worth of food and clothes with it.



Pianowolfy said:


> My point is, this is not a case of a stolen card, so I'm not sure that it would actually be considered fraud, and we all know credit card companies are ruthless as it is. I don't think they would be that generous to her. (although I'm not entirely certain about what the law says about this)


 
If she told him, "use it to get whatever you need," then she'd have a case because of the word "need" defining the agreement.

It's still cool that kind and generous people can still end up meeting kind and appreciative people.  That doesn't happen nearly often enough these days.


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## Joeyyy (Aug 14, 2010)

thats sick.
a good shot for the good homeless people.


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