The fake Giorgio Armani suits / directions to airport scam

Introduction

This past Sunday night, while I was pumping gas in a Seattle suburb, a new looking white Infiniti QX80 (imagine the size of an Escalade) pulled up to the pump next to me.  The windows rolled down and a mid 20’s guy dressed in a suit with an Armani Collezioni tag hanging out of the jacket pocket suit said to me, “Excuse me.  My English poor…”  At first, I thought he was an Uber driver even though the car was white.  Anyway, he pulled out a Hertz map and then asked me for directions to the airport.  He said he had no data on his phone and had a flight in 4 hours.  I gave him the directions, and then he thanked me.

“I work for Giorgio Armani”

When I started to walk away, he asked me if I liked fashion.  I stupidly said, “Sure” and turned back around.  He then told me he worked for Giorgio Armani and then showed me a small book of modeling photos of him.  He told me he worked for GA as a model and lived in Milan, Italy.  Let me just say that he did have a good Italian accent.  He said he was here for 2 weeks – he was down at San Francisco fashion week and now here in Seattle and about to fly back.  He then told me that if I ever went to Milan to reach out to him.  He then gave me his business card and asked me my name, where I worked, and whether I had a business card.  Luckily I have no use for business cards and would like to believe I wouldn’t have given one to him anyway.

“I can’t bring back my suits”

He then proceeds to tell me that he got 8 suits during fashion week and could only take half of them back to Italy.  He didn’t want to pay the customs on the other suits, and asked if I wanted a suit for my helpfulness.  This is the point where my bullshit meter went off.  I told him, “No thanks, I’m fine.”  He asked me why I didn’t like fashion.  I told him, “Look at me.”  I was wearing jeans, a tshirt, and some unfashionable but comfortable Skechers (sorry not a typo.)  He looked me up and down, and I swear he gave me the stink face look, and drove off.  I saw him drive into the gas station across the street right afterwards.  I then asked my wife to Google the card he gave me and sure enough, this came up (probably same guy since this is near where I was) and this one too.

Designer Clothes

For the record, I used to be into designer clothes.  I also used to walk up and down the night markets in Hong Kong and remember seeing all the fake brands.  Looking at the back of the business card, I should have known that that was NOT the Giorgio Armani logo.  Plus the email address is a hotmail address and not a corporate email address.  These were all warning signs that I should have picked up, but in the moment, you lose sight of these things.

Lessons Learned

1. You don’t need to be traveling to be scammed
2. Never give out your personal information like a business card, etc
3. If it’s too good to be true, it probably is.
4. Don’t talk to strangers.