How to spot a fake rich person?

[james.hendrickson]

Okay, this is something that I've been mulling over the past day or so. I came across an article about a guy who pretended to be a member of Miami Dolphins in order to perpetrate a number of scams.

This guy lied to a lot of people - a car dealership, several women, even the Washington Post.

Here is the article.

http://balleralert.com/profiles/blogs/fake-miami-dolphins-player-scamming-white-women/

Okay, so this got me thinking - a lot of people pretend to be rich in order to pump up their own egos, impress others, or in some cases to scam people.

So, here is my question for the forums.

How do you spot someone who appears to have money, but actually doesn't, e.g. a "fake" rich person?

[~bs]

hand him a form requesting authorization for a credit check and copies of his bank and investment statements.

[Singuy]

Okay, this is something that I've been mulling over the past day or so. I came across an article about a guy who pretended to be a member of Miami Dolphins in order to perpetrate a number of scams.

This guy lied to a lot of people - a car dealership, several women, even the Washington Post.

Here is the article.

http://balleralert.com/profiles/blogs/fake-miami-dolphins-player-scamming-white-women/

Okay, so this got me thinking - a lot of people pretend to be rich in order to pump up their own egos, impress others, or in some cases to scam people.

So, here is my question for the forums.

How do you spot someone who appears to have money, but actually doesn't, e.g. a "fake" rich person?

Define "fake" rich? Someone who lives above their means? Then that's like the majority of Americans.

[~bs]

probably means someone that openly spends a lot of money, but isn't wealthy. You can easily observe that someone is probably spending a lot of money - fancy clothes, trips, fancy car, large house, etc etc, but the only way to determine if they're wealthy or not is to pull their credit and examine their financial assets and tax return.

[Singuy]

probably means someone that openly spends a lot of money, but isn't wealthy. You can easily observe that someone is probably spending a lot of money - fancy clothes, trips, fancy car, large house, etc etc, but the only way to determine if they're wealthy or not is to pull their credit and examine their financial assets and tax return.

See we have different perspectives than the average American. Our version of "fake" rich is totally different than the norm. It takes the guy in the article to pull off such a stunt in order to be considered "fake" rich...while I just look at some of my friends who rent designer clothes and leasing fancy cars as "fake" rich.

[rennigade]

You mean a poser?

You really cant...not by appearance anyway.

[TexasHusker]

Okay, this is something that I've been mulling over the past day or so. I came across an article about a guy who pretended to be a member of Miami Dolphins in order to perpetrate a number of scams.

This guy lied to a lot of people - a car dealership, several women, even the Washington Post.

Here is the article.

http://balleralert.com/profiles/blogs/fake-miami-dolphins-player-scamming-white-women/

Okay, so this got me thinking - a lot of people pretend to be rich in order to pump up their own egos, impress others, or in some cases to scam people.

So, here is my question for the forums.

How do you spot someone who appears to have money, but actually doesn't, e.g. a "fake" rich person?

Why would I care to begin with?

[97guns]

My brothers ex brother in law was this exact person/scammer, he sold half his auto body shop business to my brother, he had 2 sets of books and sold my brother with the cooked set. He also went on to marry my cousin and that's when his house of cards crumbled, turns out his condo was rented and his Toyota supra(pretty richly rich for the day) was on a lease. He would take everyone out for dinner(pay cash) and throw around money like there was no tomorrow. He always had a huge roll of cash on him

[Singuy]

The best fake rich people are the scammers who use their perceived image to make millions of dollars. The jury is still out on weather Tai Lopez is actually rich or a youtube scammer.

[97guns]

As far as spotting them, Don't really know how but like I've said in another thread I really don't trust anyone now. I've been scammed and seen too many multiple scams for me to trust anyone.

[AJ444]

Very difficult to spot a good grifter. I try not to put myself in situations where one could take advantage, I don't fully trust very many people.

[myrdale]

The flip side of the question is how to spot a fake poor person.

I had an uncle who owned a machine shop. He did very well for himself and his family. They lived well within their means. He spent a huge amount of time as a Shriner.

After my aunt died, he eventually remarried (around the age of 70). He purchased a $300k house for his new wife. The new wife had compounding personal issues (she was a gold digger from the start). Finally he threw his hands up in the air and said she could keep the house (fully paid for) and left.

He spent his remaining 10 years dating a lady from his church. He lived in a trailer by the river, wore old khaki shorts and a ratty old tshirt. Drove the same beat up truck he had had for as long as I have been alive. He was exceedingly happy.

When he died he left a substantial amount, including the business to my cousin and very large sums to the four other kids from previous marriage (prior to my aunt).

[AJSimon]

The Hall of Fame example of this is probably John Spano, the guy out of Texas who managed to scam the New York Islanders into selling him the team for not much more than a wink and a smile (and $165 million worth of promises he couldn't come close to covering). He held the team for four months before the swindle was uncovered.

It was later revealed that the Islanders spent next to nothing in vetting Spano before agreeing to sell him the team. Which is interesting because it suggests that rich peoples' intuitions about how to spot fake rich people aren't any better than the general population.

[Milly]

The flip side of the question is how to spot a fake poor person.

I'm pretty sure most people think I'm poor. I always push my double stroller with 3 toddlers crammed in to the grocery store. I've only bought new clothes (outside of underwear and maternity clothes) a few times in my life. My hand-me-downs have definitely been going up in quality since moving near my clothesaholic sister-in-law though. I almost always pack a lunch when going out.

It makes me laugh a little inside when I surprise people by walking up to my car. It isn't anything crazy, but it is definitely more than they expect. 2013, Honda Odyssey with leather seats, DVD player, GPS navigation, "magic" doors, 5 button remote, the works. Driving that car gives me enough of a rich feel whenever I need it. We paid about $27,000 for it with cash just before my third kid was born because we couldn't fit 3 car seats in our 2002 Toyota Camry (nearing 300K miles anyways).

I don't want to look rich. Not in a town where a friend's house is broken into roughly every month. I attribute our luck to an old car parked in front of a weed lawn, but in a fairly good area of town. (Although we did have a bad tire stolen off the car recently, making me laugh out loud)

[97guns]

Better to look poor and live rich than to look rich and live poor.