Wide-eyed students robbed of $1K after being lured into street card games: admin

Last fall it was iPhone thieves. This fall will it be sleazy card swindlers?

Two female students — one last Friday on Fordham Road, and the other Monday afternoon at Fordham Plaza — were lured into 3-card monte games and then robbed of a total $1,040, according to school officials.

John Carroll, the university’s director of Public Safety, warned students in a stern email Monday night: Do not play “street games.”

“All members of the university community are advised to avoid any street games, and to be wary if approached by strangers off campus,” the email read.

Last Friday, one student was walking on Fordham Road when a woman approached her and asked for help with a 3-card monte game — theatrical street hustle — on the sidewalk, according to the security alert. When the student approached the game, a man came from behind her with what was believed to be a knife. The man and the woman walked the student to a nearby ATM and told her to withdraw $500 — and then another $300. The student complied and was left uninjured.

Just days before they were set to arrive on campus, freshmen took to social media to express some concerns about the incident.

Then on Monday afternoon, another student was walking out of the nearby Walgreens when a woman approached the student and asked if she could be her witness in card game. The man operating the 3-card monte game took $40 from the student’s hand. Then the woman “persuaded the student” to withdraw $200 from a nearby ATM, according to the security alert.