A possible fraud — sometimes called the leather jacket or designer clothing scam — appears to be back Mississauga.
The scam is an old one and there were complaints about it in Brampton and Mississauga in 2017.
At that time, a man approached people claiming to be coming from a fashion show and he was in a hurry to catch a flight back to Italy. After receiving directions, the man told victims he had designer leather jackets in his vehicle that he didn’t want to bring them home with him due to high fees and taxes.
But the jackets turned out to be fake and not worth what people paid for them.
A post on Reddit this week indicates the scam is happening in Mississauga.
The poster said they were sitting in their car in the parking lot at Clarkson Crossing plaza when a man who claimed to work for Armani in Italy asked for directions to the airport.
“After I helped him he wanted to give me an Armani leather coat as a thank you. Wow, what a super nice generous man,” the poster said. “I said no thanks and walked away, which made him very annoyed.”
The Reddit poster later told INsauga.com, the man approached Tuesday just after 1 p.m.
“I was sitting in my car with the window down in a parking space,” the poster said. “Another car pulled up beside me and the man was there. He asked for directions to the airport in a thick Italian accent. He was a bit overweight and I would say he was in his mid to late 40s. The car looked very neat almost like it was a rental. And there was a bag in the backseat with two leather coats wrapped up in plastic.”
Peel Regional Police told INsauga.com that they haven’t had any reports of this scam.
But if the person had taken the jacket, they may have been conned into paying money for it eventually.
In a similar incident reported in Toronto last year, a man ended up paying $130 each for three jackets after he was offered one for free. The scammer also asked for directions to the airport and told the man he couldn’t bring the jackets on the plane with him.
“The jackets are definitely not genuine leather and at most are probably worth $15-20,” the poster said. “They have tags that look legit and the jackets look ok at first glance but feel very cheap.”
The jackets were in a clear plastic protector and it wasn’t immediately evident until later that they were fake. The man was 70 years old and bought the jackets as Christmas presents.
This scam is fairly common, according to Scam Detector.
“The Leather Jacket Scam could happen to you anywhere – in a mall, on the street, in a parking lot, etc.,” Scam Detector says. “It involves leather jackets for sale – or accessories – whether they are Armani, Versace, Gucci, Burberry, or AC Di Milano jackets.”
For more information and to report fraud, visit the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre or call police.
Lead photo: Adrian Ordonez
