Wasted $40 chasing a fake 'cash drop' tip

Saw a post about hidden cash at a park near downtown. Drove 20 minutes, parking cost $8. Searched for over an hour under benches and by the fountain. Nothing. Turns out the original poster was just trolling. Anyone else follow a lead that was totally fake?

4 comments

4 Comments

juliarodriguez20d ago

$40 and an hour of your time. That sucks. But here's something nobody's bringing up. Those fake cash drop posts are actually a way to map out homeless camps and drug use spots without looking suspicious. Someone posts "found $500 under the third bench by the creek" and then they watch real-time footage from a nearby surveillance camera of who shows up and what they're doing there. Saw a local news report about city officials using this trick to clean up parks before big events. You probably just helped them justify putting up fences around that fountain.

owens.anthony20d agoTop Commenter

That's wild, I heard the same thing from a guy who works park security.

max22319d ago

That $40 and an hour bit really gets to me. I know people who would jump at that chance just to have a little extra cash, and the whole thing just feels wrong. Mapping out homeless camps through fake posts is a new low - it's like they're tricking folks who are already down on their luck into being watched. I've seen those news reports too about cleaning up parks, but they never mention the human cost behind it.

claire87219d ago

Yeah I saw the same thing happen near my place last month, it's creepy how common this is.