A different version of "show me your money" scam. What's the most realistic scenario here?(Terrible attempt at scambait)

I live in an European country and as I was on my way walking to work, someone who acted foreigner and spoke in english was driving nearby and asked me if I knew where the closest bank is to exchange euros to our currency, while showing his wallet full of fake Euro bills (there's nothing that screams scammer more than this). Told him it's on his right and then he began asking me to show him the bill in the local currency with the smallest number. We rarely use euros here. He pretended to want to exchange euros with our currency.

Usually if you take wallet out, the way it works is that they either put their hands in it right when you're about to take the bill and pretend to take 1 bill instead of more, or you are only distracted while his partner is pickpocketing you and in many cases they even replace your bills with fake ones. But this is usually done on foot, not from the car. I wouldn't have opened my money belt if he was standing near me, but since he was in his car with there being a distance between us, I didn't mind showing the bill. Of course he asked me to show a larger bill and I did a second time. At this point I was waiting for him to either

A. ask me to exchange with his fake bills

B. ask if he can hold the bill and just drive off

I thought too late of C, but what if

C.I was being distracted while his partner tried pickpocketing me? I didn't see anyone but I could've probably not noticed since I didn't have that in mind.

I declined telling him I don't have a larger bill and then he drove off. Maybe I should've showed him and played along more but I was starting to feel there could be a robbery and that I might be in some physical danger, there wasn't anybody nearby, it was in the middle of an empty street. I'm well accustomed to scambaiting and have done plenty in the past, but very rarely in real life.

At first I didn't think of any scam honestly since I'm asked often for directions.

I checked the amount of cash in my belt after that, there didn't seem to be missing, if it did it must've been a very small amount because I didn't count everything from the beginning.

What is the most realistic scenario in your opinion here? A, B, C, or none?

New user pass phrase: I'm just here to learn something

Posted Sep 6, 2025, 8:53 PM UTC

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