I was idly poking around at BP ads recently (no link posted, as it doesn't meet TER standards), and one caught my eye because it was very close to me.  I texted, she responded, and told me the hotel she was in (supposedly).  As we were settling a time, she asked me to stop at CVS and buy Amazon gift cards for the donation, since she didn't like to accept cash on a first visit.

My scam-radar started pinging, but since I figured I could bail out and keep the cards for my own use on something else, I rolled with it.  I have had ladies ask me to pick stuff up before, although not usually on a first meet, and I have seen a lot of ladies who will gladly take gift cards.  I figured that I wasn't going to get physically attacked, although "grab-and-go" might have been possible.

I showed up, texted her to let her know I had arrived, and after a few minutes, she asked me to send her a pic of the cards and told me to come to a floor that isn't actually part of the hotel -- it's part of a connected mall.  (If you know Baltimore hotels, you now know where I was, but I don't want to name any names.)  I questioned her, and she then sent me to a different floor, which also didn't have any guest rooms, but had a bar and a bunch of function rooms.  I tried calling and got no response, just additional texts about how to open up the card packages and put them on the dresser when I got to her room.  At that point, I gave up and sent a final "not sure what kind of scam this is, but I'm not having it" text, and left.

I can't figure out how this scam was supposed to work.  I never sent any information about the account numbers on the cards, just pictures of the unopened packages with the denominations on the front, so it couldn't be someone trying to pirate the numbers.  If they never got me into a room, they couldn't *take* the cards from me.  The only thing I'm out at the moment is my time -- I spent about a half-hour futzing about at CVS and texting from the hotel lobby.  She might have made a mistake about what hotel she was in, but she sent me the correct address for the name of the hotel that I went to, and I've met other ladies there before.

Any thoughts?