Beware of scam in Venice - especially solo female travellers!

I was almost scammed last night and tonight I failed to intervene soon enough when I saw the same thing happen to another solo female traveller. I feel terrible so I am making this post to hopefully prevent others from being caught in this scam!

This happened two nights in a row outside Venezia st Lucia station. A young woman, blonde, with backpacks and a camera might approach you, pretending to be in a rush and needing to get home to her young daughter but her phone has died. She’ll say it’s her first time solo travelling will eventually ask for a small amount of cash which she will promise to pay back.

She might ambush you with a lot of words at the start and claim to be in a time crunch and that she’ll give you her contact details so she can pay you back.

Do not give it to her! Just say you don’t carry cash and she’ll move on.

From what I’ve seen she tends to target other young women who are sitting by themselves by the canal.

I almost went back to give her the cash because I couldn’t find anything online about this scam so I’ve decided to post here. And has anyone else encountered her?

Edit: wow! Wasn’t expecting such a large response. Thank you for the kind and understanding comments and touching stories about helping out and being helped out strangers.

Of course it seems obvious when I type it out in a reddit post. Even when I was talking to her, I had an inkling that things were off, hence why I didn’t give her the cash. However there was a part of me that wondered if I just turned down an honest woman trying to get home to her daughter which sucked. Hence why I’m posting to reassure anyone in this situation that this is indeed a scam. I hope everyone stays vigilant but kind out there <3