While some may find it embarrassing to speak
about the time that they were scammed while holidaying in fear of being seen as
either “silly” or “oblivious”, I can assure you that you don’t have to feel bad
about getting scammed because those folks who criticises are certainly none the
wiser. They are probably those who were victim of scams themselves but just
didn’t know or dare to admit it. Scams ranges from small-scale ones such as
overpriced souvenirs to overcharged cab fares, to the larger-scale ones such as
having to pay a hefty compensation fee for a damaged jet ski (a famous scam in
Thailand).
Almost every country I’ve been to I’ve been
scammed at least once and I’m not proud of it of course. This problem is especially prominent if you “get
down and dirty” like the locals. But I find no better way to appreciate the
culture of a country than to live and eat like a local. Even though most of
them were rather trivial, it really pisses me off just thinking about it. I
will only talk about the scams which I have encountered personally before, with
the exception of second hand encounters (through friends/family).
The most important rule to come to terms with is that
being a smart, informed and alert traveller will NOT prevent you from getting scammed. Scam artists are called as such (“artists”) because they know when
to claw down on you when you least expect it, when your guard is down. It’s extremely
exhausting to always be on your guard, I know that ‘cos I’m always on mine
whenever I travel abroad. I would always read up about the localised scams,
mentally prep myself and even watch self-defence vids on youtube (yup, I’m that
paranoid). However, I still occasionally fall prey to scams because of the “small
openings” and their modus operandi just wasn’t “textbook” style.
So I guess knowledge is power. There’s no
prevention better than knowing. But bear in mind that the diversity of their
modus operandi is vast in this ever-changing world. But for whatever it’s
worth, I hope that through my sharing, I’m able to at least prevent a handful
of you from falling prey to the conniving sons of a b******.
Welcome, to my scam-clopedia…
Cab scams (“Cabbaddies”)
We’ve heard of this one too often. Yet
recently (Jun 14), I just fell prey to it in Philippines. *face palm* Cab scams
come in various forms. But the most common one is where the cab driver will
quote a pre-determined fare instead of running by the meter. And it’s almost
definitely more expensive. The textbook advice is to always go by the meter.
While holidaying in Philippines, Mactan
Island with my wife, I had requested for our resort to help call a cab for us.
I didn’t want to go with the resort’s private pick up because it was more
expensive. Much more.
The cab came late. The cab driver was like
a middle aged punk, with neon stickers pasted all around his interior. The
hotel porter asked him to show and run by the meter. The driver then flipped a
plastic case down to show the meter. Suspecting that the driver was a dishonest
chap, the porter reminded us to pay only what was shown on the meter.
I didn’t pay particular attention to his
advice, because I thought to myself “Wasn’t it obvious?” Guess not. You see, we
were rushing to catch a ferry. We had signed up for a day tour in Bohol with a travel
agency but had to first take the ferry there by ourselves. We were told to pick
up our tickets at their counter based in the ferry terminal.
While in the cab, the cabbaddie was trying
to get more information from us, about what time our ferry would leave, what
time we’d be coming back, and whether we would need a cab to pick us up. He
told us it would be hard to get a cab and that he could wait for us once we
returned. It’s a common conversational topic, to digress a bit, even in
Vietnam, a cyclo-rider wanted to bring us around to more tourist attractions
even though we only told him to bring us to one.
He basically offered us an “additional
private tour package”. It’s difficult to reject there and then, because you
don’t wanna offend them. There’s a possibility they might make detours and play
punk with you. So the way I did it in Vietnam was pretend to be interested, to
engage in false discussions with my wife, and when we reached our destination,
I rejected the offer. It’s always a good idea to break down your notes, and
even though I did, the cyclo-rider told me he didn’t have change for my small
denomination bills. I guess the only way to prevent this is to give them exact
change, which isn’t feasible most of the time. To note that cyclo-riders in
Vietnam have no meter (duh), so we decided on a flat fee, but I turn up paying
a bit more than I offered due to the “lack of change” – the “no change scam”.
Getting back to Philippines… I did the same thing… pretending to be
interested, asking about details, fake discussions with my wife… but what I
didn’t expect was that the cabbaddie had to pay for a ticket to enter the
terminal. By then, timing was tight for us… and when he quoted us the amount,
justifying it by saying that the extra cost was for the entrance ticket, we
made no particular mental calculation of how much it was. He even said that he
would return to pick us up… which he eventually didn’t, needless to say.
It was only after alighting, while waiting
at the agency’s counter to get our tickets that I started to do the math. We
were overcharged alright. The cost of the ticket turned out to be around 1/4
the price of the cab fare. Though it wasn’t a lot, maybe a sing dollar more or
so, it was just frustrating. Despite all the textbook, cyber info about cab
fare scams, I still fell prey to it. I should have gotten down to ask the
attendant for the exact cost of the ticket, but then again I didn’t have the
luxury of time… which is of course what the cabbaddie banked on. He was a cunning one alright, he fished out
the ferry departure time from us earlier so I was sure he had already done his
mental calculation. He paced himself well, so much so that time was on his
side.
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Big
change scam
While on the topic of no change scam above,
I might as well talk about the big change scam. It didn’t happen to me per se,
but it happened to my friend who was standing just beside me at that time. It
took place in 2004, while my buddy and I were on an overseas attachment in
Scotland. We were based in Ayr, a small humble town with a trust system I was
so impressed with. Once again, to digress a bit. In the research institute that
we were in, Hannah Research Institute, the cafeteria owners trusted the staff
so much that they don’t collect any money on the spot. The employees need
simply to drop the cash into a paper cup which was out of the owners’ sight. Talk
about trust.
The same “trust” cannot be said to exist
throughout Scotland. My friend and I went over to Edinburgh to meet up with a
couple of our friends attached there when we decided to grab something to bite
from Burger King. When it was during our turn, a homeless woman came up to the
cashier and asked if she could change her small change for a 10 pound note. The
cashier straight off rejected her, and the homeless woman then turned over to
my friend and asked if he could. My kind-hearted friend did just that, and
before he could start counting his coins, the lady poofed away like a puff of
smoke. We then realised that she only gave my friend 8 pounds worth of coins. 2
pounds back in those days was a whooping S$6 bucks, and though it didn’t bother
my friend too much, I was just fuming inside.
Toilet
Scam
This is possibly the most insulting scam
that had happened to me. My wife and I were holidaying in Vietnam in Dec 12,
and we headed over to one of the main tourist attractions, the One-Pillar
Pagoda. Around the vicinity, there’s a
public toilet. The public toilets are mainly chargeable, but it was there that
I paid the highest toilet fee ever, close to 1 USD! And to add salt to the
wound, I “willingly” paid the toilet aunty, I willingly accepted the scam. The
aunty told me that I had to pay 50 cents, but I silli-ly doubled that amount to
include both me and my wife. It wasn’t until the look she gave me when she
turned away, (that look, the subtle smug expression of doing something bad and
knowing that you’ve gotten away scot free) before disappearing into the shadows
of the female toilet that it got me thinking… did I just get ripped off?
You see, the problem with travelling abroad
is that we’re seldom familiar with the currency, and it’s always quite mind
boggling doing all the mental calculations in your mind. While it seemed
reasonable to be paying 50 cents for a toilet, the “market rate” was 10 cents,
and the more expensive ones were 20. But not only did I pay more than double
that amount, I offered to pay 5 times that amount! (of course it wasn’t “cents”
I was dealing with, but the Vietnamese Dong)
Toilets! Toilets! Who would have thought
there’s even such a thing as a toilet scam??! Shitamoly!
Street
vendor scams
Italy
This “scam” is prevalent in almost every
country. As long as there’s souvenir hunting, there’s bound to be scams like
this. Sometimes, it isn’t just products, it’s selling of services. This isn’t
exactly a scam, you just need to do your homework and know the “market rate”
before haggling and deciding whether the price offered is the best offer.
However, there are some incidences that you won’t have the luxury of doing so,
because some of the souvenirs are quite exclusive.
There are also street vendors who would forcefully
sell you something you don’t need. Extremely common in Europe, especially in
Italy. I came across countless street vendors (supposedly from Romania) who
would either force a rose into your hand, fling flying toys right in front of
you, shine green laser pointers in your path to attract your attention, and
even those who offer “free” food to feed roaming pigeons. It didn’t happen to
us, but I’ve seen many tourists falling prey to them during our honeymoon (Dec
13) there.
The worst was the “pigeon feed scam”. This China man was offered food to feed some
pigeons, at first it seemed to be out of goodwill, then the scammer would keep
going back to him, giving him more feed and finally asking him to pay up. It
was like watching a live broadcast of human fishing.
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I’ve also seen street photographers, offering to take photos for unsuspecting tourists at Trevi Fountain in Rome and asking for a fee. The funniest (not to be mean but true) scam I’ve seen is that a couple who fell prey to it seemed rather happy about it initially, but after looking at the instant photo, the lady exclaimed loudly that the picture didn’t include the Trevi Fountain. Ie. The photo was badly taken and it could have jolly well been taken anywhere, with no proof of the Trevi Fountain in the background. Even though she made a fuss, both she and her partner were a little tipsy, and they came across more tickled than offended. Not sure what conspired but the “photographer” helped to take another photo of them and this time, even though the lady looked more pleased, she just kept shaking her head while they left.
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I’ve also seen street photographers, offering to take photos for unsuspecting tourists at Trevi Fountain in Rome and asking for a fee. The funniest (not to be mean but true) scam I’ve seen is that a couple who fell prey to it seemed rather happy about it initially, but after looking at the instant photo, the lady exclaimed loudly that the picture didn’t include the Trevi Fountain. Ie. The photo was badly taken and it could have jolly well been taken anywhere, with no proof of the Trevi Fountain in the background. Even though she made a fuss, both she and her partner were a little tipsy, and they came across more tickled than offended. Not sure what conspired but the “photographer” helped to take another photo of them and this time, even though the lady looked more pleased, she just kept shaking her head while they left.
Vietnam / Cambodia
They’re a bit more stealth in Vietnam and
Cambodia. Camping at most of the tourist sites, the scamtographers will take your
photos without rightful consent, simply by approaching you and asking both you
(you and your partner) to smile. You could, in theory, show them the finger.
But it’s better to passively reject them then run the risk of offending an
entire syndicate. The speed at which
they developed the photos was impressive.
Cruising along Tam Coc River in Vietnam, scamtographers
would mount little boats and start snapping tourists during their river tour.
And at the end of the tour, they’ll approach you and offer to sell
locally-watermarked photos of you as a souvenir.
I have to admit, they do make rather good
souvenirs if they’re well taken. Which explains why I actually “fell” for a “scam”
like this. Well technically I didn’t fall for it because I willingly paid for
the photo. And it’s not so much a scam considering it’s not malicious, it’s
more of a thinking-out-of the-box method to sustain a livelihood.
Normally, my initial reaction towards
anyone approaching me will be to shoo them off… but after shooing this particular guy, out of curiosity, I took
a quick glance at the photo. It turned out to be pretty awesome. Not wanting to
appear too desperate for it, I instantly cut the price by half, to which, he
accepted readily (I mean there’s no reason for him not to since the photos
would be wasted if I hadn’t gotten them). To be fair to him, I also didn’t want
to offer such a ridiculously low price. So eventually I paid around 20 cents
(S$) for the photo.
In Cambodia, there will be lots of kids who
would approach you to sell you souvenirs. Almost every tourist spot we went
too, we were hounded and horded by them. I eventually gave in to one, one
particular little girl who told me that the money she collects from selling
stuff, would be used to buy herself a textbook, for education. Of course I
didn’t believe her. I wanted to though. So I kept telling her, that should I
buy anything from her, she has to use the money to buy herself a textbook. I
warned her not to lie to me, and she kept saying she won’t.
I ended up buying a couple of souvenirs
from her, one of which was a nicely hand-made friendship band.
I gave her the benefit of the doubt, I
stubbornly forced myself to believe her, but it wasn’t until in Philippines, on
Malapascua Island that another girl, used the same “trick” on me. She said
something similar, about her school doing charity and whatever she sold, half
of it will be donated back to the school, the other half, she would use it to
buy textbooks for her education.
How it all first happened was that she ran
after us after we walked past her and her friend, who appeared to be chilling
out along the beach. Then she passed some random Japanese remark at us, and I
told her we weren’t Japanese.
After walking not too far, she came running
after us, and spoke to us in English. Her English wasn’t very good, but she
tried hard to communicate nonetheless by saying that she learned English that
morning and her teacher told her to speak to tourists to improve her English.
Though I suspected something was amiss, for
a moment, I did honestly want to believe that she stopped us so that she could
practise her English language. It wasn’t until she took out, rather sneakily,
yeah, sneakily, a couple of souvenirs wrapped up in a cloth that I realised she
was just another kiddo trying to rip me off.
Ironically, even though I knew I was being
ripped off, she did offer some rather uncommon souvenirs, so I haggled a little
and repeatedly asked what she would use the money for. She kept saying it would
really be for buying herself textbooks, which once again, I wanted so hard to
believe.
It wasn’t until the next few days on the
island, that I realised it was just a scam. Talk is cheap. Deep down, I wanted
so much to believe that the kids (at least for that girl on Malapascua) might
be moved by my actions, that even though they themselves were sure they were
deceiving me, they would have second thoughts after seeing an act of “trust” on my part. But no. I,
instead of helping them, might have spoilt them even further, by affirming the
success rates of their lies. It might have given them more confidence to lie
even more, to many more kind-hearted tourists in future. What have I done?
I knew it because for the next few days,
she just kept avoiding us. She would run up to us halfway, but upon realising
that she had already spoken to us, she would pretend to look the other way, and
backed off. There was a guilty conscience inside, but yet… it’s not enough to
make her learn. I don’t blame them, I mean afterall, they’re living in such
poverty it’s just a way to ensure their survivability. This is a scam that is
heartbreaking… a scam that for once, I felt more sad, than angry.
Next comes the most amazingly comical scam
I’ve come across. I don’t know to gape in awe, or to laugh out in ridicule. “Thirsty drink vendor” scam. Classic.
It’s classic not because it’s common, but
because it’s just… priceless.
A drink vendor came up to us in Cambodia,
along the banks of Tonle Sap River. This happened in Phnom Penh.
I straight off rejected him. But he told me
he just wanted to sit with us to have a chat. We allowed him of course. It was
just talk, no harm done right? Wrong.
He asked about us, and also shared about
himself bla bla bla, about his family so on and so forth. In fact, I was on a
genuine listening ear, though the info I shared about myself might not be 100%
true (it’s a way to safeguard myself). Then when the opportunity was right,
when he thought he had me convinced of how hard a life he had gone through, he
brought up the sale of his drinks again. By then, with all the talking, we got
a bit thirsty. And realising it didn’t cost much, I decided to buy a can drink
from him for his efforts.
All was well, until he asked a most classic
question, “Can you buy me a drink?”
“Sorry, what? Buy you a drink?” I replied
rather puzzled.
“Yes, can you buy me a drink?” he repeated.
He said he hasn’t drank for a few hours.
I laughed a little and told him that he can
just open a can cos he’s selling it. He said he couldn’t because it was too
expensive for him.
It blew my mind. Like blasting my brains
out with an AK-47, I didn’t know how to react internally. Imagine this, buying
a canned drink for a guy from himself. I thought he was joking, but he was
serious alright.
So I asked if he would drink it or if he
would just put it back into his Styrofoam box. He said he would of course drink
it. But I didn’t buy it. Literally and figuratively. As classic as it was, as
much as I would love to reward his ingenuity of coming up with such a
ridiculous plan, I told him no, 1 can of drink was all I was buying from him.
After realising that he had hit a dead end,
we parted ways, amicably. There were no hard feelings, he was friendly to me
even at the last minute. I didn’t know what to think of the situation, but recorded
it down in my mental book of most ridiculous scams of all time. In fact, by my
definition, I wouldn’t call it a scam since I was aware of what was happening.
However, by strict definition, a scam is “an attempt to defraud a person or
group by gaining their confidence”, which makes this and the kid methods scams
nonetheless.
Before I end off with the street vendor
scams, I have to make particular mention of the Cambodian kids, who would use
all kinds of methods to gain the pity/awe of tourists. Most of them would try
the “impress you” method, by speaking in all kinds of languages. Not full
sentences, but for example, numbers. Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Malay, English…
and on 2 rare occasions, we even came across kids who could count in dialact,
Hokkien, Cantonese, Teochew! Speak about dedication!
It’s a tricky one these scams. Even though
back then I hated being hounded that badly, I really pitied them… their
lifestyle, their poverty. If you were to ask me if I would do anything
different when it came to those scams, I would honestly say, no. It might not
matter much to me, but I’m sure it does to them. At least, they tried.
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Private
pickup scams (Boat-igans)
The most devious scam of all. The scammers
usually do this passive aggressively. Take note that whenever you opt for a
private pickup/tour, you subject yourself to a potential scam like this.
There are some similarities with the cab
scams mentioned above, about how they would offer their “exclusive” private
tours. From the land to the sea, I was mostly subjected to private pickup scams
over water, by what I call, the Boat-igans.
Perhaps the most pressurising one we felt
was when we stepped foot onto a private pump boat pickup to Malapascua Island,
Philippines. As it happened no more than 2 months back, the scam is fresh, so
fresh, it still taste of the sea.
Even though I have made mention of it in my
earlier posts, I shall detail it here. I had missed out the lies that the boat-igans
verbally threw at us.
Through Tepanee Beach Resort, we had gotten
a private pickup at a private port. Private ports sound exclusive, only problem
is that the so-called port was in fact a breakwater which created the necessity
for bag handlers. Which of course you’ll have to tip them for. However, after
touching down at a new place, chances are that you won’t have small change for
such tips… and that’s when the first strike hits.
The second, was when we were on board. Not
even giving us time to settle down, the boat-igans came up to us to preach about
how cheap their services were and played on their exclusivity if we were to go
on a private tour with them. “Best rates on the island, very nice spots around
the island, just you and her”, they said. Yeah, if you’re comparing their rates
with they, themselves and them. Their services were cheap alright, not in the
monetary sense but in the means-of-their-methods sense.
Third, they scammed us by saying that they
would make lunch for us, 1 kg worth of chicken, 1 kg worth of fish, beer, coke
and all that crap. However, we had to pay an additional 1,000 pesos for it,
equivalent to S$30. Well, out of goodwill, I didn’t mind cos ultimately we had
to “feed” them too, but I felt taken advantage off when the next day, during our
private tour, the chicken I saw them whooping up for us looked no more than
300g. Did they honestly think that we couldn’t tell?
3 strikes and they’re out. Not yet.
Anyways, after clinching an island tour
from us, they pitched yet another private tour to another island, Kelanggaman Island.
It was much more expensive, and they said that we could even see dolphins along
the way. We did eventually go for the tour, but not with them. It was a group
tour at 1,000pesos (2,000pesos for both of us) instead of the 8,000pesos they
offered us. And during that tour, there was not a single dolphin soul around.
We did see flying fishes, and I only wondered, if we had in fact gone with them
for the private tour and questioned them about the dolphins, what would they
have said? Laugh it off and said the flying fishes were like dolphins? Oh
please…
They asked for a deposit of 1,500pesos, and
we had to eventually pay a total of 3,000pesos for our private island tour (to
4 attractions). But we eventually paid them 3,500pesos because one of them had
seen me breaking down my big notes at the resort’s front desk, and came up with a diabolical plan of increasing
the price of the food they bought by 200pesos. One of them came up to be and
explained that the food costs a bit more because they bought a lot. I mean,
what could we have said? And who does that? Charging more than the agreed
amount?
My wife and I were the only ones on board,
and it was only during the start of the tour. We sure didn’t want to offend
them, considering we had to swim in the open waters and that it was too obvious
a declaration of war had we brought our money down with us during snorkelling.
The agreed 3,000pesos + the additional
200pesos would make it 3,200pesos, so how did I end up paying 3,500pesos then?
Well, cos they acted pitiful and said they didn’t have change at the end of it
all (yet another scam, a scam in a scam, recall the “no change scam”). One of them said after the whole day (actually
the tour was only half a day), I wouldn’t even give them 300pesos tips?
I just wanted to shake them off for good,
with that additional 300pesos I hope never to see them again. And so I gave in.
But in the next few days, I learned that Malapascua Island was too small an
island to cry over spilt milk. They were extremely pestery, clinging on to us
like desperate leeches.
Not only did one of them keep hounding me
to take up their services again, he tried to poison my mind with cheap talk,
about how and why I should engage them on my return trip to Cebu. I had to keep
playing it “survivor” style, giving him the same treatment of “cheap talks”. I
finally told him off after he tried to lecture me about my “mistake” of going
with another liaison. I said to him in a stern manner, “Is there a problem?”
And it was only then that he no longer dared to talk s*** to me.
It was bad, it left a bad taste in my mouth
even though the BBQ lunch they whooped up during our private island tour was
fairly decent. This classifies as the worst scam I’ve been a victim of. They
had so many strikes I wouldn’t do enough justice if I had merely exposed them
here in my blog. I did too in Tripadvisor, and I sincerely hope that no one
else would fall for their scams ever again (wishful thinking on my part).
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In Cambodia (2012), at Tonle Sap, there’s
also a similar scam going on. But it’s more in-your-face than the backstabbing
kind. At the port, we were hounded by syndicates of boatmen, and when two
Australian ladies came up to us asking us if we wanted to share a boat with
them, a horde followed them. The ladies explained that it was less than half
price a year ago, but now the local boaters have obnoxiously raised the price
by more than 200%. It would have been cheaper if we were to share a boat with
them.
However, the leader of the syndicate told
us aggressively that he wouldn’t allow it. The boats would only take both
groups separately. Not wanting to offend the boaters, even though I felt real
bad and really wanted to join the Australian ladies, we ended up taking our own
private tour.
Oh no, the private tour. Checked. We
thought everything was alright until we made a pitstop at a floating hut.
There, we were brought forth to yet another “leader” of the pack, where there
was a heavy obligation to go with a side-private tour along the mashes. By
then, I firmly rejected it because I knew that it was just going to be scams
after scams… we were led down the Eden path of continuous scams. For all we
know, while in the mashes (mangroves), I’m sure someone will row a boat to us
to sell us stuff and all that bull.
Luckily, that was kind of the end of it, a
rather traumatic experience by itself.
My bro had warned me beforehand because he
too had taken a private boat tour with his wife along Tonle Sap. For his case,
the boatman offered him to bring him somewhere very exclusive, private. He
agreed, and was brought to a quiet, secluded spot. There, my brother felt a
threatening sense of silent pressure. He told me the boatman had this look in
his eyes, as if he was plotting something sinister, murderous (no kidding). But
thankfully, both of them returned home safely. So the advice was to reject any
“exclusive” offers made by the boatman, and the mangrove tour seemed to fit
that description.
Snatch
Thef
And now, the most drama-rama encounter
*drum roll*, a brush with the “real deal” was during my overseas attachment in
Scotland during my Poly days. That’s way back in 2004. This real life encounter
I have told one too many times, it’s like a battle scar, a war story that will
be passed down generations.
It was so outrageously bold that till this
very day, I’m still coming to terms with the reality of it. I was on the ball
all (almost) the time, but let my guard down there and then because it seemed
like something that would only happen in the movies. An incident that’s
seemingly impossible to happen in real life, but it did. But because it did, it
redefined the “boldocity” of overseas crime and set my internal benchmark of a
worst case scenario.
To qualify as such, it has to fit a few
criteria. One is to be robbed in broad daylight. Another is to be robbed in
front of a crowd of no less than 100 pax. The other is to be robbed in the
presence of police officers and not get any help. And the last factor is to be
robbed with the aid of accomplices, basically 1 vs “x” number of a-holes.
In essence, I was snatch thef-ed in broad
daylight in front of about 100 pax. There were even policemen on patrol, but
none laid a finger to help me. It took place at Plaza De Catalunya, this open
spaced plaza that looked like Singapore’s open spaced plaza in front of Ngee
Ann City. There were many free-roaming pigeons on the floor and a couple of
statues erected around the plaza.
I was there with my buddy and another
female friend. My buddy ventured off to take photos of the statues, while my
female friend and I stayed behind to snap shots of the pigeons. Yup, it’s a
tourist thing (that’s why the “pigeon feed scam” works), a bunch of roaming
pigeons seen overseas seem like a priceless photo op for any tourists. I slinged
my Olympus digital camera around my right wrist while taking using her
point-and-shoot camera to take a photo of her.
After taking the shot and returning the
camera to my female friend, a young boy, about the age of 14-16 years came up
to me. He was within an arm’s length. I looked at him and asked, “Yes?”
Thinking that he needed help with something.
But what happened next was the shortest and
longest 15 mins of my life.
He reached out, snatched my camera, gave it
a fierce tug and almost immediately, the strap snapped. It was like flicking a
brittle stick and snapping it into half, the camera strap that I always thought
was secure could hardly endure a slight tug.
At that moment when it happened, time
seemed to slow down for me. I remember processing it in my mind, questioning
myself if what I “saw” was really happening. But before I knew it, I snapped
back to my senses and kept repeating the f word in my mind, as I started chasing
the thief. Thanks to the sprinting days back in my pri and sec schs (I was a
sprinter), I caught up with him quickly. But when I grabbed him, I didn’t know
what to do. A hugggeeee mistake. On hindsight, if it were to ever happen to me
ever again (touch-wood, hope it doesn’t), I will surely land him multiple
punches and kicks.
With one hand on his shoulder grabbing his
jumper, I reached out for my camera with the other. We were like playing a childish
game of “snatch it if you can”. The next instant I knew, he wriggled his way
out of his overhead jumper aggressively and broke loose once again. Holding
onto his jumper, I saw stunned… a second time. It was like in a Jackie Chan
movie. An overhead jumper! Not the front zipper ones!
I threw his jumper on the ground and gave
chase once more. It was then that an older boy flashed past me and tripped me
with his feet. I broke my fall heroically with my left hand and it happened so
fast that my friend didn’t even see me stumble. However the fall was so bad
that I sprained my shoulder and had to eventually seek medical treatment back
in Scotland. But the adrenaline that flowed through my body kept me going like
a boy terminator.
By the time I had almost caught up with the
thief, who was looking back frantically, he finally threw my camera on the
floor. And when the camera bounced up after striking the floor, yes, it looked
like slo-mo then, his accomplice also tried diving for it. Thankfully, I got to
it first… and the ordeal was finally over.
They scampered away and rejoined their
gang, who were standing some 30 metres away from me. They just looked at me defeated,
as if they had “lost” a battle. However, what pisses me off till this day is
that not only did they get away scot free, they were all unharmed, while I had
to painfully suffer a seriously sprained shoulder.
Almost immediately, an older man came up to
us and spoke to us in Spanish. I kept pushing him away, as I thought to myself
that every single one of them was part of a syndicate. It wasn’t only until
later that my female friend told me that he was simply asking if I was alright.
Then… as if it was God’s way of reminding
me that goodness still exist, my female friend told me to look back again because
a kid was calling out to me. When I turned around with a nasty glare, I saw a
little boy holding onto something. His mother was standing beside him.
My
eyebrows unfrowned, the anger in my eyes dissipated, when I realised that he
was holding onto my lithium battery which had sprang out during the drop. I
walked up to him, thanked him profusely and left the scene quickly, in fear of
being targeted yet again. Even though I was disappointed with the people there,
it was that look in the little boy’s eyes, that look of innocence, that left me
with a mixed bag of feelings. It was horrible, that very instant, I hated them
so much I even harboured crazy thoughts of going back there as an assassin to
snipe those f****** down.
But today, thinking back, it’s sad. It was sad
because of the environment in which they grew up in. They were in such poverty
that they had to resort to such means.
Even though the policemen who turned their
heads away after my friend called out to them were obviously in it together, it
was the little boy who reminded me that humanity exists even in a degrading
society.
My camera failed me a couple years later,
possibly from the internal damage it suffered back then. And though it costs a
bomb back then (yup, my mum had to ship it over from Singapore, amounting to about
S$1K), that incident which occurred as a result of it thought me a valuable
lesson.
Club
Scam
The club scam, or the party-goer scam is a
hard one for me to talk about. You see, I believe that scam happened to me
because the scammer failed in his first attempt, and probably improvised. So
I’m not sure if there’s even such a thing as the club scam, but I, embarrassingly
fell prey to it.
I was in London (2001?) visiting my Aunty
and Uncle living there. I was on a trip with my mum, but decided to venture out
by myself because I wanted to get a feel of the night life there. My mum was
tired and wanted to rest in the hotel, but was worried about me. I assured her
that I would be alright and knew how to look after myself.
Not wanting to be too complacent, I only
took a small bit of cash with me, just in case I get robbed. Also, to play it
safe, I would only walk around within the vicinity of our hotel room.
I went up to a couple of clubs and asked
about their cover charges. While deciding on which one to go to, a Black man about
twice my size came up to me. He asked for change to take a bus. I rejected him
of course, telling him that I don’t have small change. He then pretended to get
friendly with me and asked where I was going, and if he could be of any help. I
had initially tried to shrug him off, but he pestered me quite a bit. Thinking
it’s just a couple of small change, I let him “bring” me to a club which he
said was very fun.
He kept reassuring me that it was around
the corner. Corners after corners, even though he said was close-by, I found
myself walking further and further away from my imaginary “safe zone”, the
so-called immediately vicinity of the hotel. So I told him I’ll go break down
my notes so that I can pass him his “fee” and then to shake him off.
We entered a convenience shop and when the
owner gave back small change, he grabbed the whole lot of it and returned only
a few. I was stunned alright. But I knew it was already too late… too late for
trusting people, for “not minding” to help supposed scammers. His hand was much
longer than mine and there was no way I could have grabbed the cash first (and
the shop owner was a cockanaggens to say the least, he should have returned the
money to the person who gave him the money!). I kept asking him to return me my
money because the initially agreed amount that I would give him was less. Yup,
I foresaw the problem and had given him a “price” that I would pay for his
services so that there was no dispute when he had gotten my “tips”.
What I didn’t expect was how unappreciative
he was and how he cheated a few more pounds out of me. While it wasn’t a lot,
perhaps around 8 pounds, which was S$24 back then, I was reprimanding myself
for being too nice.
I ended up only being able to pay for the
cover charge to enter a club and not have enough money to buy any drinks. So I
sat there, all alone in some dark corner, accompanied only by the sound of
trance music spiralling within the club. Everyone who was having fun seemed to be
draining it out of me.
Needless to say, I didn’t hang around for long.
Petition
Scam
This didn’t happen to me, but was shared by
my colleague who was a victim of this scam while holidaying in Paris. She was
at the Eiffel Tower when it happened. To keep her identity confidential and for
the purpose of easy reference, let’s call her C.
A lady came up to C and asked her to sign a
petition. She did, and after signing, the lady asked her for a token of
donation. C asked how much was needed, and the lady said anything. So, C gave
like 2 euros or so. The lady took the money and flipped the clip board,
pointing to a small print stating that a minimum of 10 euros was needed. C was
enraged and said no, but she still passed the lady 5 euros I think. Instead of
giving back the 2 euros, the lady kept all 7.
The “deal” was over, and another of the
lady’s confederate wanted to approach my friend C again. It was then that the
lady told her not to.
Final
Words
The severity of scams vary, the methods,
though similar may appear entirely foreign in different contexts and
circumstances. Bottomline is, there’s nowhere that’s safe. Almost. On both our
trips to Taiwan, I don’t recall being scammed. So that might be an exception.
One isn’t spared in Singapore either, cab scams and food scams (mostly seafood)
are in abundance. Around the world, pickpockets and cab scams are possibly the
most common, on rare occasions, more “exciting” scams might happen to you. The
notorious friendship band scams in Rome, the Jetski scam in Thailand, the
Kidnapping scam in Singapore are several of the more devious scams, scams which
entrap the victims.
So stay sharp, stay informed, and
ultimately, stay clear-minded because while it’s inevitable to fall into scams,
mentally training yourself to have a clear sense of any situation might help
you get out of some of them.
My advice is to stay clear of anyone
dubious, regardless of how harmless they claim themselves to be. Keep the
conversations short, sweet, and firm. Because once they start the ball rolling,
it’s tough to roll them away with the ball. Create an invisible barrier of an
arm’s length around you whenever you’re overseas, and give anyone the death
stare when they get uncomfortably close (it worked for me when I was in Italy).
It’s an extremely paranoid but effective way to stay protected. Because to relate
to any sane person, why would anyone take the harder route (victims) when there
are easier routes (victims) out there?
Disclaimer and Credits: None of the photos in this post are mine. As there's quite a few sources, I won't be referencing them but would like to thank the owners for letting me share them (unknowingly). The photos in this post are for "beautifying" purposes and while they're fairly representative, they are not the actual scam photos.
Disclaimer and Credits: None of the photos in this post are mine. As there's quite a few sources, I won't be referencing them but would like to thank the owners for letting me share them (unknowingly). The photos in this post are for "beautifying" purposes and while they're fairly representative, they are not the actual scam photos.