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Scams
Sept 11, 2015 9:03:19 GMT -5
Post by jimm on Sept 11, 2015 9:03:19 GMT -5
We were sitting in the waiting room at DaNang station waiting for the train to Hue, when I nicely dressed Vietnamese girl sat beside us and asked if she could practice her English. Later I bought us all a bottle of soft drink each, and all we did was chat. It's not always a scam.
But I think the toothpick girl in the Hue Citadel was. It was only 100,000 Dong - about 5 bucks so nothing to get excited about. Marginal scam I suppose.
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Scams
Sept 17, 2015 10:09:56 GMT -5
Post by sprite on Sept 17, 2015 10:09:56 GMT -5
this week i learned a new one, an acquaintance got stung in rome.
a very nicely dressed middle-aged gentleman asks if you would take a selfie with him, on his phone. while you're doing that, he picks your pocket.
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Scams
Sept 17, 2015 10:12:33 GMT -5
Post by sprite on Sept 17, 2015 10:12:33 GMT -5
Quick question: how to deal with Roma children who cling tightly on one's leg(s) and won't let go? Happened to me in Tibet but my partner was with me who peeled the filthy little fingers one by one to release me. But when one's alone? I've been reading about this problem in certain places in Albania (where I am visiting in 2 weeks time, without my partner). When the Roma adults swamp you and your wallet/phone etc is expertly removed. hidden, zipped pockets. small amounts of cash, nothing on you that you want to lose (like, do you really need your driver's license?). rohan is good for hidden zips, and their quick dry jeans are really comfortable. but not cheap. |
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Post by tzarine on Sept 17, 2015 13:36:22 GMT -5
this was a pleasant surprise
a guy in rio offered to take a photo of tzarevich & me
to show his goodwill he gave us his phone to hold while he took the photo
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Post by rikita on Oct 14, 2015 2:53:15 GMT -5
Quick question: how to deal with Roma children who cling tightly on one's leg(s) and won't let go? Happened to me in Tibet but my partner was with me who peeled the filthy little fingers one by one to release me. But when one's alone? I've been reading about this problem in certain places in Albania (where I am visiting in 2 weeks time, without my partner). When the Roma adults swamp you and your wallet/phone etc is expertly removed. how'd the roma children get to tibet? not saying there aren't any, but it seems kind of an unlikely place ... |
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Scams
Oct 14, 2015 3:06:02 GMT -5
Post by rikita on Oct 14, 2015 3:06:02 GMT -5
i had some smaller scams happen to me, i suppose. a girl in bucharest who i spoke to for quite a while, waiting for my train - she said she needed to find people to take to this hostel, they might employ her as their train station meeting person, if she gets them three customers first, but she does not find any, and she needs formular for her baby. she did take me to a shop to show me what formula she needed. i gave her half of the money for it - no idea if she really had a baby or not, but in the end, it wasn't much money considering how much time she invested.
also in romania, we got to this one castle after closing time and a guy offered to show us parts of it "that are usually off-limits to tourists", for a fee. in reality he just took us to the back to have one peek in the garden, not really worth the fee but again, not that much money either.
ah and a shoe shine boy in cusco once asked me if i want this special water protective cream on the shoe, and i said okay, and then it suddenly cost ten times as much as agreed before - i told him i am not happy about this, but i paid, because in the end again it was not that much money. in general i paid more for things like shoe shining than the locals did, and my peruvian bf of the time did not think that was good, while i thought it is alright, as i had more money than most locals.
so all these things i don't find that bad - sure, people try to get money out of you, but they are usually struggling for survival, and the amounts are small, and unfortunately exaggerating sad stories or using a bit of trickery seems to be the only way to make a living in some places. in the end, it is not so different from exaggerated commercials, or the ways people are tricked into phone contracts that don't quite keep what they promise or similar things ... and with the shoe shine boys at least i knew that most of them did indeed use the money to contribute to their family's income ...
what i am not so happy about, obviously, is having things stolen (though a friend of mine once told me she wouldn't mind, if someone stole her money, the little she had on her, then that'd mean that money was more important to them than to her) ... they tried the "spitting someone in the face, then creating confusion around them trying to help, while picking their pockets" trick on me in cusco, but i had heard about it before, so i really watched out for my stuff as soon as the spit hit my face. shouted at some guy who i thought was trying to pick my pockets, and he looked really confused, so maybe he was the wrong one. nothing was stolen, but that experience was really really gross ...
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Scams
Dec 3, 2015 19:34:39 GMT -5
Post by tzarine on Dec 3, 2015 19:34:39 GMT -5
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Scams
Dec 4, 2015 4:10:59 GMT -5
Post by sprite on Dec 4, 2015 4:10:59 GMT -5
they tried the "spitting someone in the face, then creating confusion around them trying to help, while picking their pockets" trick on me in cusco, but i had heard about it before, so i really watched out for my stuff as soon as the spit hit my face. shouted at some guy who i thought was trying to pick my pockets, and he looked really confused, so maybe he was the wrong one. nothing was stolen, but that experience was really really gross ... that is incredibly gross--i didn't hear about this when i was there. but i did learn about organised begging in cusco. one of our teachers, while in uni, for some reason as an assignment had to try begging. the first evening, she dressed as pathetically as possible (ew! i didn't wash my hair or shower for one week!) and sat near the train station. she made about 60 soles, which was donated to something else. that's more than most people make in a day of work, so she did well. it was unpleasant, but not horrible, she wrote up her notes and the next night, went to the centre. it was more difficult, as the shoeshine boys were there and the baby llama ladies and the souvenir people and the other beggars. same thing--people were reasonably generous, it was unpleasant, not horrible. but within an hour, a couple of nasty looking guys came over and told her in no uncertain terms that she had no permission to be there, and she would have to meet the big boss and arrange paying him a cut if she wanted to stay. she promised to stay away, and they promised to beat the shit out of her if she ever showed up again. turns out there's a very visible character in the centre who runs the whole show. anyone scamming for money around the plaza pays him. he spends his days smiling at the tourists while slagging them off in quechua. i looked at him in a new light, i can tell you. |
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Scams
Dec 9, 2015 18:40:47 GMT -5
Post by tzarine on Dec 9, 2015 18:40:47 GMT -5
people were sold a petroleum product in moscow in the early 90s when they wanted cheap caviar
our waiter sold us 2 delicious tins of sevruga, from the rather nice hotel restaurant's pantry
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Scams
Dec 14, 2015 6:32:30 GMT -5
Post by sprite on Dec 14, 2015 6:32:30 GMT -5
a new credit card one that hit a friend of mine: your card is comprimised, and items purchased. but, to avoid raising flags, these are sent to your address. the scam works because lots of people aren't home, so when the item can't be delivered and re-delivery is arranged, the scammer can go to a place of their choice to collect in person. this one bounced because my friend is a stay at home mom. hah! (also, she watches their cards like a hawk.) so today, when something we hadn't ordered came to the house with an old movie star name on it, i kind of freaked out. turns out, the shop wrote the house number badly and then typed it wrong. i found my neighbour on facebook and got it all sorted in 15 minutes!  |
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