I fell for the fake 100rmb not switch once in a taxi. Was on my way back from a trip to HK. Got in taxi at Guangzhou East station on my way downtown for a beer with mates. Went to pay with a tatty 50 note (all the small money I had) and the driver gave it back. So have him a 100....which he gave back saying "bu hao".....wasn't watching / thinking straight so gave him another one clever bastard had done a quick switch of my note with a fake one. Didn't realise until later. 

Learnt how to spot fake notes from that scam!

never been scammed

I fell for a big scam ,Im not proud of. there was an advert on shenzhen party .com and the advert said we can do your work visa for you.the advert seemed real

they said they had connections with the government.I phoned them up had chat about what I should send them.

got photos and passport ready sent it off .I also had to pay half for the visa (3000rmb) and then the other half when they had done my visa.2 weeks later they said they had done my visa so I paid them the rest of the money.

then i get a mesg saying they have sent my passport back to me.

my passport was coming from Beijing.I waited and waited nothing turned up.I gave these people a call.they said its on its way,ok waited and waited and waited.then I phone them again they asked for more money.I already paid them 6000rmb the price of the visa.They also said they were leaving for Singapore and if you dont send us more money you wont get your passport back.

I said not paying anymore money to you,I kept sending mesgs and phoning them asking for my passport back as I did not care about the money.I phoned my embassy gave them the phoned number,they phone these people telling them you have stolen a New Zealand document and that is against the law.

well my passport was sitting in a mail box at some post office near Beijing. Someone from a post office in Shenzhen  phoned up the post office near Beijing and they sent my passport back.

I found out  these people had scammed around 300 people.

This happened about 4 years ago.

(please excuse my poor writing skills but you get the gist of what Im saying)

Half-fall for?

Beijing tea-house scam. I was aware of it... so I told the girls that I didn't bring much money with me, so they'll have to pay for their own. I ended up paying only about 300RMB in total

Never been majorly scammed in China - got the scenic route from a few taxi drivers and have been overcharged for fruit and such at streetside stalls - also a couple losers pathetically tried to pickpocket me by trying to use sign language to communicate where my wallet was and not so stealthily following me around in a bus. When I was walking around Wangfujing alone in Beijing i had several people approach me asking to have tea and practice English - they should at least come up with a new scam or be a little more creative.

the other week i was in family mart and bought 4 carlsbergs. at the checkout i decided maybe to go back and get another two. when i got home one of the original four was punctured and leaking beer. leaking can possibly had been switched by the cashier once i had gone to get the other two - as he packed the back while i was doing it. Obviously not the worlds worst scam but but sure was a cheap, petty and nong-like thing to do and highly opportunistic as well.

Marrage
But i fooled her
She got worst part in the deal

Christianity.

I bought agarwood once...it smells strange.

I'll answer for my mother, who had her passport stolen twice in China. I call it a scam, because I believe both times involved multiple people working together not a spur of the moment pick- pocketing.

Her first trip to China was with us. She didn't even make it out of the Beijing airport before being scammed. We had just cleared immigration and were walking out. A couple of guys smashed into her even though there was plenty of space.She apologized to them. Sigh. Passport gone. This still was in the passengers- only restricted area, so I find it hard to believe they weren't airport employees or being helped by someone at the airport

Her 2nd trip was alone. This time, she made it out of the airport, but the taxi driver who drove her from PEK to her hotel stole one of her carry-ons (she thinks with help from one of the bell boys but no proof.) While she did lose some cash, a Kindle, and a credit card, her passport was still safe.

But... Later in her trip she was on a river cruise. She wanted to buy something at the boat store. The employee  told her she needed to show her passport (???) She went to get it from her cabin. There was a lot of commotion during the transaction. When she got back to the cabin, she realized she didn't have her passport. The people at the store couldn't find it (??)  No one in the ship could find it. Where could it have gone on a ship? She probably should have thrown a huge fit, but she's from a time and place where people "don't want to be a bother."

Apparently a glutton for punishment, she went back for a THIRD trip. I was none too pleased. Her inability to manage her belongings or be assertive makes her low hanging fruit for crooks. As far as I know, no more thefts. It's possible it happened and she was too embarrassed to admit it.

I fell for a type of tea house scam, but they offered me Beer with not one but 4 super hot girls... I knew it was a scam but then thought F* it... drank two beers, paid 1000... promised them I will return some day and left... to be fair I actually had fun before 3 fat and one karate kid looking men forced themselves in the room and demanded money... 

Someone once called my mobile phone using an internet phone or some kind of out of country number because the first digit was a + symbol.  I figured it might have been a friend from abroad, though didn't recognize the country code, so I answered and spoke in Spanish for the fun of it.  The person on the other line spoke Chinese and I pretended to not understand, though I understood completely, and kept speaking Spanish.  Realizing they had a foreigner on the line, they tried to speak in broken English "I am China policeman, I want talk to your wife".  I went to the office where I was and asked a female colleague to pretend to be my "wife" and said it was probably a scammer because I knew the police would never use such a phone.  After several seconds, she hung up and we laughed, as we knew it was a scam.  But, a few minutes later, they called back from a similar number like the first.  This time he said "I am China policeman, I want talk with you something".  At this, I decided to have some fun, as I could also speak Chinese I said to him in Chinese "Truly?  I used to be a policeman too and my former colleague works in one of the Embassies in Beijing.  Why are you calling me from your computer instead of the PSB office number?   Give me your office number and your commander's name so I can let my people verify who you are and why you are calling me" and with that he hung up really fast and that was the end of the discussion.  Never called me again.  Funny people! 

Another time, someone called my wife's phone while I was flying home from a business trip, here in China. They claimed they were the Guangzhou police and that her ID Card was stolen once in Guangzhou, strangely it was the truth, and used to open a false business license to scam people out of a large amount of money. They wanted her to fly to Guangzhou and face the claims that people had demanded someone pay for this and started to ask questions about her salary and assets, we had a house and were in the middle of a mortgage. I arrived home around that time and her parents told me not to enter the bedroom because she was talking to the police, but I decided to enter anyways. She was cowering in the corner on the verge of tears pleading with the "police" not to let her go to Guangzhou because she had a child, no mention about me and my name was not on the mortgage. Well being somewhat familiar with Chinese laws and procedures, I listened even thought she tried to let me leave the bedroom. When they got to the point of asking about our mortgaged home, I had had enough and smelled a bad fish. As there was no way I was going to let my family become homeless and was willing to do anything, including go to the media and pull guanxi, I went outside and called a friend who was connected to the government and explained what I had heard. He told me to let my wife hang up the phone quickly and say nothing of value because it was a scam and that the real police would come to the door, not negotiate by phone which is what I was also thinking at that time. When I went back home, I told her to hang up and she was scared and begged them to use the toilet. I then shouted at the topic of my lungs in Chinese, to hang up the phone and let the cheaters bug off, to put it mildly. She promised them she'd call soon, then hung up. I explained it to her about the true procedures of the police and my friend called her and explained in Chinese. After a few minutes the scammers called back and we told them to go "F#$%" themselves, that the real police were now in the home and investigating thiis matter and wanted to know their details. They hung up so fast and later their number was "out of service". After, I went to the local police station to register my new visa number and explained this to the real policewoman I had happened to be on friendly terms with, she told me that she knew of this scam and not to fear and never reveal too much information, but that the scammers could do nothing to hurt us financially. It was a good thing I didn't obey my inlaws to not enter the room on that day and I got home just in time because my wife was too naive to separate a rat from the truth. Anyway, I am just sharing this story because if it helps prevent others from being taken, its a story worth knowing indeed.

I fell for the "Coming to China with the hope of making friends and living a normal life" scam

Yea I admit it, I fell for the Shanghai taxi scam. You know, late at night, heavy suitcases and all, did not sleep on the flight, friendly driver ... takes you about ten kilometers and drops you off ... and you pay some more. Then you stop again. Jiminy. I got mad at the second stop - hey I was exhausted - and complained loudly "I only have 200 rmb, take me home, you $%&#  #$#& you &%#$ know where it is, @#$% blah blah.

Getting near my place the driver would stop, we're one or two km from my place, and say "Here?" He's laughing. Grrrr. Then he does it again. And again. OK so I was laughing at the end, but how do folks without a pocket full of rmb deal with that? I probably lost an extra 4-500 rmb on that one. No other scams besides paying double for grapes on the street. 

When I was in Beijing before I found myself in a KTV with a 5,000 kuai tab in about 30 minutes. No girls, mind you. Just beer and some fruit. A big guy made sure I couldn't leave until I paid. I paid with my credit card, and canceled it as soon as I got home. 

I fell for one of the old tourist scams during my first visit through China. I was in Beijing and walking about taking pictures, when a young girl (about 17-20) holding a baby approached me. She was selling roses for 60 RMB each. She said "mai yi ge" buy one. How could I not??? When I first saw her she was wearing tattered clothes and the baby didn't look healthy either, my heart absolutely sank. So I just gave her 100 and said keep the change. Looking back on it now I know it was most likely a setup, a professional beggar.    

I fell for the scam of believe China was a communist country. Oh how naive.

As opposed to a scam that I'm proud I fell for?