Resident Warns of Ballston Gas Station Scam

If someone approaches you in the Ballston area, claiming to be in need of gas money, you might want to think twice before obliging. According to an ARLnow.com tipster, the man is perpetrating a scam.

The tipster said a man in Ballston came up to her and her husband earlier this year and said he needed gas money to visit his dying father. They handed over $20. This week, the same man — apparently not recognizing the couple from the earlier encounter — came up to them again and recited the same story.

Here’s what the tipster had to say, in an email sent Monday night:

Here is how the story went the first time he tried his trick on us:

My husband and I were walking back from dinner. We were in the courtyard by Grand Cru (4401 Wilson Blvd) when this man walked up to us. He was a tall (6’3″ or so) white male and was wearing a baseball cap. He said that he was looking for gas money to go visit his dad in Raleigh, N.C., who just had had a heart attack. He said he needed $60 for gas and needed to leave right away in case his dad was not going to make it. He offered to have us take a picture of his driver’s license and to take his phone number. He promised he would call us in a few days and reimburse us as soon as he could. He added that he lived at the old Avalon complex on Glebe. He sounded as genuine as could be. His story was convincing and we couldn’t help but feel bad for him. We gave him $20, all the cash we had on us. Of course, we never heard back from him and never got our money back. We then realized it probably was all a hoax.

Tonight, we know for sure it was a hoax… He started telling my husband the exact same story about his dad and how he needed gas money to go visit him. Almost verbatim. Since my husband didn’t want any trouble with a potential sociopath, he just told him he was sorry but didn’t have any cash on him. He had been going around each car at the gas station asking for money with the same story. I was burning inside but was too scared of saying anything.

The tipster’s description of the alleged scammer is different from the scooter scam artist in Rosslyn last year, who pretended to be out of gas and asked passersby for money.