Fished In
First of all, sorry about the lack of photos so far, I’ve been taking loads but I cant upload them to the PCs here — the boxes are locked up for security. As soon as I can find someone with a laptop I will try and con them into letting me dump the photos from my camera onto it and post here.
We’re getting into the flow of things now. Have figured out where the good bars are (Lower Haight, Mission), where to shop (Market St), where the weirdos and crackheads hang out (Tenderloin) and where all the strip clubs are (outside my window).
Went to Fisherman’s Wharf yesterday, which is right on San Francisco Bay, and roughly comparable to Circular Quay, only cooler cos its also got Alcatraz. Fort Denison? Pfft. Don’t make me laugh. This is the Rock we’re talking about.
Visited a Wax museum (lots of cool photos) and also Ripley’s Believe It Or Not, as well as the Aquarium under the Bay… we just happened to stroll through the underwater tunnel with all the rays and sharks at feeding time! The guy told us they actually feed the things gourmet quality seafood (squid and prawns etc). Which made me feel hungry, as I’ve got a food budget. Stupid lucky sharks.
I suppose the most interesting thing to happen to us yesterday though, was we met this guy named Danny Green. He was an old hippy rocker. He noticed our accents and told us his band, Melting Point, were going to be one of the smaller acts touring with the Big Day Out this year (!) He asked for some tips on where to go while he was visiting so we gave him the list of places along the coast.
He was pretty excited as there was a big rock show taking place that night in Upper Haight — feat RHCP, Pearl Jam and Green Day. A charity thing for hurricane survivors, it was getting filmed by MTV, and he had somehow managed to hook up VIP tickets through his new label. But he was also pretty bummed because his band couldn’t make it to San Fran for the show. Suddenly, out of the blue, he asked if we wanted to come along and take their tickets, if in exchange he could pick our brains about how and where to get around in Australia? It took us about a second to make up our minds: “f*** yeah!”.
We walked to a phone box and he called his attorney, telling him that the band had actually arrived and to hold on to the tickets, and he’d come pick them up now. Then we dropped into a Starbucks and traded information, phone numbers and addresses etc. He also briefed us on the band as we would have to pose as band members, I was on keys and Bob was on bass. And if anyone asked we had to make sure we mentioned Melting Point’s new album, “Heaven’s Gate”.
So I was pretty excited as we hiked to the Holiday Inn. When we finally got there he told us to wait outside and he’d be back with the tickets. Oh and by the way, they were $7 each.
Bob and I both looked at each other, smelling a scam. I quickly went over the events of the past hour in my mind. He’d given us loads of information, seemed really keen to get some contacts in Australia. We’d talked alot about music and digital music production and he definitely knew his shit. And finally, would he really spend an hour coming up with ridiculously elaborate story, to the lengths of making a fake phone call, just to milk us of $14 bucks?
So I took a punt and gave him the cash. He disappeared into the building and we sat down to have a smoke. We waited an hour and he never came out! We took off to have some lunch. Felt pretty stupid getting scammed like that, but Ripleys cost $19 for an hour, this guy was much more entertaining.
Anyway look out for the breakthrough new album Heaven’s Gate from LA rock stalwarts Melting Point, at all reputable CD stores this summer!
10/01/2006
Hmmm…I guess it goes to show never trust anyone with a strong resemblance to Keith Richards.
10/03/2006
Sounds like you got value for money there. The guy could have almost got away with more with the kind of effort he put in. I hear San Fran has lots of washed up relics from Haight Ashbury’s heyday … look out for Ken Kesey’s ghost.
10/06/2006
good story. i once got ripped off in SF too if it’s any consolation. similar story – give me the money i’ll meet u back here. also had a similar incident with this guy who befriended a friend of mine & claimed to be from soul2soul. after scamming a free meal we eventually got him back to our place for a jam with hilarious results. it was well worth it for the mileage we got out of retelling the story. plus u can never be sure. i once turned down an offer of a jam from a black american guy i met in a bar in tokyo. he was going on about this great funk band he used to be in, & it all sounded kind of dubious. later saw his picture on the back of a Headhunters album – he was the real deal. so now i trust all melting point types, just in case.
10/06/2006
Ummm… i don’t want to make you sound like a moron or anything, but… it’s friday afternoon & i’ve been looking for anything else to think about other than work… & i am just wondering why the hell u would be giving this guy $7 for these tickets. Firstly if u get VIP tickets through a record label or whatever, wouldn’t u expect them to be free!? OR.. if not free, wouldn’t it be more than $7 to see Pearl Jam et al?! i’m sorry but this Melting Point dude really needs some work on his scam, & with ppl like u & Bobby falling for it as is, well, ur just not helping!
10/18/2006
this dude obviously just needed a dimebag with a little extra cash to ease his munchie attack after the smoke cleared!
10/18/2006
Hi! Don’t be angry. We both met the same guy today, and we also gave him the money. We now tried to find melting point on google, and came to this page. But this guy knows his buisness very well. He was quite good in entertaining. He picked us up at the pier 39 on fishermans warf, and told us the same story. went with us to Embacadero Center and left us waiting in the lobby. After 45 minutes we also left. But it was the best hotel lobby i ‘ve ever been, so we took a few photos, and lauged about what happened. The best way is to take it easy.
10/20/2006
if that herbert & stefan thing is true (?!) that is one of the funniest things ever. or at least today.
i vote we form the band Melting Point & set up a my-space site. this dude can do free viral marketing for us.
10/24/2006
Yeeepppp…. got done too. Charged us $8 though, but that’s inflation for you. All the fine details really sucked us in, even pointed out some tiny recording studio in the back of a hotel and rattled off some bands that had recorded there.
But all that for only $8!? Seriously, for the names he rattled off, I would have handed over a $20 without a second thought!
10/25/2006
$8? Could be worse… according to this myspace page, some guy got done for $30 back in ‘05. I wonder what caused him to drop his rates? But then again there’s a post on virtualtourist.com from some savvy Swedes who saw through his scam way back in ‘03 — I guess he hadn’t perfected his schtick at that early point in his career.
As I mentioned in another post, I like the idea of this page becoming a Google-induced nexus for Danny Green scams. And to the D-man himself, if you’re reading this, feel free to post a comment and gloat at us suckers! Or at least explain how you intend to fund your rockstar retirement on 8 bucks an hour. Honestly, I’m intrigued!
10/25/2006
http://ueberngrossenteich.pytalhost.com/blog/?p=35
10/25/2006
sorry linkt your homepage because we wrote the story with danny green on our homepage. If it disturbs you feel free to delete it.
12/23/2006
we got done by the same guy! we are aussies as well, and i guess things like him knowing about the big day out and all his music knowledge is what swung us. He never mentioned any money until the last minute though, we were thinking it was free and things like that have happened to me before, so I just didn’t think it was weird. When he asked us for the money i was instantly a bit confused but we were put on the spot, and the two of us didn’t have time to discuss it right in front of him standing there… and we just gave him the money. He wasn’t even in the elevator yet when i said to stu that i think we just got scammed. But like you, we figured it was such a small amount of money, so we still weren’t sure why he would have spent over an hour with us for that. We waited for about 15 minutes, then afterwards we felt so stupid. But, I guess if anything it was a pretty small amount of money and we are a lot wiser now. We are still laughing about how duped we were though.
07/26/2007
Yeah my girlfriend and I got done by Danny too, $8 each and a different hotel to the rest of you but same scam. We kinda ended up even though, as he left his jacket with us so we handed it in at the hotel’s lost property section… dunno if he’d have had the nuts to go ask for it back!
Gonna be back in SF next spring and am gonna go looking for him this time, but might not be parting with any more of my cash…
01/06/2009
Danny is back
same story just happened to me and my girlfriend today.
But now it’s $12 for the Danny Greene Show…
01/16/2009
[...] Analytics tells me the most frequently visited article on my crappy site is the one about Danny Green, the wannabe rockstar scam artist in San [...]
02/03/2009
all i have to say is that he earned the 15 bucks he got from me and a friend. he knew his shit! if i were to run into him again… i would fall for it a second time! this guy is good! well done on his part! an hour of info about his band/his home town/ our home town! wow! he is good!
02/28/2009
Danny strikes again!
I cant believe how ridiculous I am for admitting to this, but I fell for the same ploy today, February 27, 2009. i know I know, I am an idiot – like a kid from Iowa visiting Manhattan for the first time. A few interesting caveats and contrasts:
- Tonight’s show was Dylan at the Avalon, playing a solo acoustic show for the music HD channel.
- Ticket price’s have inflated over the course of the past three years, $15 a piece.
- He left behind a small leather bag, with some old legal papers and a small handheld TV – perhaps purchased with $14 referenced above.
- The loss prevention officials at the Marriott have their best men on it.
03/04/2009
“- He left behind a small leather bag, with some old legal papers and a small handheld TV – perhaps purchased with $14 referenced above.”
Is this guy just insane? I am beginning to think that he gets off on seeing people get happy then leaves belongings that are worth the amount that he stole from the last guy.
I approached him on Fourth Street and Howard to ask directions during the last day of February ‘09. I thought that he was legit because I approached him (not vice versa), he was the first San Franciscan with whom I spoke (what are the odds that he was a con artist?), and he had an extensive knowledge about many things. As the first poster asked, who the hell goes to such lengths for $15 anyway?
He left a nice jacket and a pair of glasses that were at least worth the amount that I gave to him.
I majored in psychology. The dude is fascinating and funny to me. He seemed excited and happy because I was excited and happy… and goddamn it, it was at least entertaining. I wasn’t even mad. If I ever return to San Fran and see him again I would probably laugh.
03/04/2009
Guys, don’t forget to mark the location that you bumped into Danny on the ScamMap(tm) http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF&msa=0&msid=%20111535891552216509558.000463cbd3b3e92c2e1da
04/27/2009
I love this guy. I met him in 2004 in SF, on Market St, I can’t remember exactly where. He gave me the same spiel the rest of you guys, then we went to “his hotel” where he was going to go upstairs to get the tickets. I gave him $10 or something not expecting to get the money back, but it was well worth the entertainment. I was in town on my own for 10 days to go to the Apple developer conference and I didn’t really know anybody so it was pretty good entertainment for an hour or so haha.. if I came across him again I’d probably offer to buy him lunch