What is a word meaning 'beggar' or 'panhandler' but without implying poverty?
I’m looking for a word in English for men and women that beg money from people in the street. But they are not really poor, they are just pretending, and it’s their job actually.
As far as I know if they are really poor we called them “beggars” or “panhandler“, but what if they are not?
Solution 1:
In idiomatic U.S. English, a common term that may apply to the situation you ask about is freeloader. Here is the entry for freeload as a verb in Merriam-Webster's Eleventh Collegiate Dictionary (2003):
freeload vi (ca. 1934) : to impose upon another's generosity or hospitality without sharing in the cost or responsibility involved : SPONGE — freeloader n
The noun sponge or sponger (used in an allied sense) likewise has no inherent element of poverty. Again from the Eleventh Collegiate:
sponge n ... 3 : one who lives on others : SPONGER [where the verb sponge, to which sponger is attached, means "to get something from or live on another by imposing on hospitality or good nature {sponged off his sister}"]
A person who doesn't suffer any serious privation but subsists by asking others (whether friends, relatives, or strangers) for money, food, lodging, etc., may well be called a freeloader or sponger.
Solution 2:
You can use professional beggar, a term of heavy irony.
A beggar is anyone who begs or asks for money from strangers. The term implies poverty — who else would want to beg for money publicly? — but does not define the beggar as poor. The word professional alerts the reader to the irony of begging that involves expertise.
In the play Fiddler on the Roof, a beggar complains about a smaller-than-usual handout from a regular, who then attributes his stinginess to a slow week. The beggar argues, "Because you had a bad week, I should suffer?" And there you have the hallmark of a professional beggar. He may even be in need, but the entitled attitude does not befit a beggar.