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Q: Notice any strange and elaborate scams, or robbery attempts?
Here's mine... just happened about an hour ago.
While walking with the wife on our way back from shopping, we were joined almost immediately by an 8 year old girl who seemed to be somewhat mentally ill. She said she just wanted to "walk" with us, and began asking the wife lots of strange questions about me. My wife seemed nervous, and I thought it was weird that she didn't have a mother, father, or anyone else with her.
Well, being the paranoid schizophrenic that I am, I looked back and noticed a very evil-looking man who began following us as soon as the girl joined us (I'm very perceptive and have a photographic memory; it makes picking people out of a crowd very easy. I remember him from earlier too). I stopped on the side of the road to talk with the wife, and noticed that the same man stopped and stood still.
So, I decided to take it further. I walked up to corner of the sidewalk, and told the wife to stand there with me for a minute. The guy walked up closer to us, and then I turned around and stared at him. He turned around and just stopped outside the corner store. He wasn't moving, and neither was the girl.
I then told the wife that we're going to buy some water in the store. When we went inside, they both disappeared quickly. Nothing was stolen, but you could tell she was trying to do something. I had no idea what the man was up to, but I was hoping he'd give me an excuse to stab him in the face; I hate people who exploit children.
So here's a heads up... if you get joined by someone who just wants to walk with you, regardless of age, just make them go away or do your best to lose them. Nobody in their right mind would go up to a foreigner and ask if they can walk with them, even a child.
Anyone else spot some weird activity? Fall victim to it? Please share.
11 years 25 weeks ago in Health & Safety - China
There are phone scams to be careful of: You get a call telling you a loved one is in hospital after an accident and you need to pay a certain amount of money (more than ten yuan) for them to have an operation immediately. This happened to my wife's father, but he was smart enough to say "Hold on for one minute" in which time he called my wife, verified her good health, and was able to tell the guy to go fuck himself.
It's an ugly world. Not an ugly China.
诸葛亮:
It is indeed an ugly world... problem is that the ugliness rears it's head more often in China.
mArtiAn:
Yeh, that's actually something I don't get at all. i honestly don't see that. I mean, I know there's dodgy shit goes on here, but I don't see it any more here than anywhere else. I honestly don't.
Every week City Weekend publishes a "Scam Alert" and most are pretty useful. There is a China collection of scams and a "China Black List" of scammers and their web sites published at www.CleverChinaCheaters.com You may want to read about them there before you learn about them the hard way - on the streets of China. Below is the last scam alert I got from City Weekend (I subscribed so I get them automatically every week for free) http://www.cityweekend.com.cn/beijing/articles/blogs-beijing/expat-life/scam-alert-id-theft/
the little girl was a pick pocket.
诸葛亮:
I know. We guarded our pockets, but she was joined by another man who kept his hands inside his coat, as if he was ready to reach for something.
crimochina:
he was armed with a knife. he was only there for protection. typically chinese people wouldn't notice the girl as she picked their pockets. i've seen it soo many. 1 small person (child, or short guy) with 1 or 2 bigger guys following behind. if an altercation occurs the backup step in.
诸葛亮:
Yep, I figured he was. I was armed with two gigantic combat knives that I just purchased, and a reach that would've cut off their heads if they tried anything funny.
