moondog

I'm not sure how to respond to this. While I certainly don't want to encourage creepy practices in this forum, I don't support suppressing obvious truths either.

Fredd

I was catching up on this thread and ran across this.

We were in Shanghai late last year and as we wandered around the Bund we were approached first by a young woman alone. Like others, we've taken photos of others and had photos taken of us in various parts of the world.
I took her photo and soon dismissed her fairly brusquely after she started the "Where are you from?" routine. Mrs. Fredd thought she was on the level at that point and rebuked me for being impolite as we walked away.

But soon we were approached for a photo by a couple, then by another couple, and at one point by a group of four or five. Mrs. Fredd realized her cynical husband was right this one time.

Some were standing at subway entrances clearly waiting for foreigners to show up and after the first young woman it became hilariously obvious what was up. It happened to us no fewer than five times in the space of little over an hour.

It's a good come-on and we'd never seen it before. Sadly, it will probably spread elsewhere. They've certainly saturated the market around the Bund.

bruce80

Having just returned from Beijing, I have the feeling that those "Hello Sir, please wait a moment, Sir" kind of incidents have almost vanished from the streets. I haven't once been approached (but being in company of a woman most of the time might have helped), nor were I able to spot the typical kind of person usually waiting to pull off something like that.

However, as an european, one still seems to be prone to several kinds of rip-offs where they give out smaller quantities of goods (compared to what local-looking people receive) for the same amount of money. Additionally, using DCC on CC charges (without asking) seems to have increased. They even charged me in EUR at the airport, although I had clearly ticked the "CNY" box on the receipt. Well, for the 4 or 5 EUR that might save me, it doesn't really seem worth complaining to the CC company and soliciting a copy of the receipt as a proof.

moondog

Mandatory DCC is on the decline; latest generation pos machines have an opt out.

Majuki

That's what they count on to perpetuate the scam. If everyone did a chargeback on principle, I believe you'd see a lot fewer cases of forced DCC in China.

That's good to hear. However, do language barriers/untrained staff still present problems even if one requests to be charged in renmenbi?

moondog

Not really. It's honesty a non-issue here in Shanghai.

anacapamalibu

Role Reversal

“Changsha resident Mr. Tang took the No. 402 public bus to work in the morning. When the bus stopped at Liuchengqiao station, he noticed a tall Laowai getting on the bus. Without inserting a coin into the automatic ticketing machine, the foreigner showed a board saying “Help, wallet stolen, borrow 20 yuan” to the passengers one by one and begged for money in crude Chinese.”

“Because he is a foreigner, many passengers 'lent' money to him”,





http://www.hugchina.com/china/storie...013-05-20.html

YuropFlyer

Alright.. who of you is it?

Fredd

I've been known to offer my Seiko for US $100 to the people trying to sell me "Rolexes," but I'm not this guy.

sniles

Came across this today
Scammed out of $100K in Shanghai

jiejie

Undoubtedly this was one of those $99 China tours offered to Chinese-Americans/Chinese-Canadians, usually through Chinatown agencies. The entire offering is a set-up and group-think amongst this demographic is very strong, she's right about that....which is why they are targeted.

I don't know how many warnings one can give or how much incontrovertible evidence one can present.....there are still going to be a lot of people that you just can't save from themselves. In the eyes of the Chinese authorities--who could presumably do something about this--when one is an active participant, handing over cash willingly for a product or service without any overt threat to life or limb, how much of a "scam" is it? All they had to do was say "No" and keep the wallets under wraps.

TennisNoob

Exactly, you get what you pay for. People always complain about getting scammed or having there time wasted. That's because they opt'd for a $99 tour!!!

YuropFlyer

It's the same as those 19.99€ tours they offer to a "lovely German city"* for Swiss elderly..

*with a "short" show of whatever junk 70-90 years old might stupidely buy

And there are many of them which go (and buy!) several times..

anacapamalibu

Takes all of 5 seconds to google search the scam.
Princeton Twins should have got vpn and could have shown the others..it's a scam!


Shanghai - Day 7

Apr 30, 2014

Day 7

Today was the last day of the tour. Just before our journey to Shanghai, we stopped at the "Tianmai Jade Jewelry Expo Center." I thought it was "suspicious" that our tour guide said that we have the option of going inside or not and that he would not force us to go in. I did not want to go in since I already know that this was another shopping stop. BUT, the other members in our group was like "well, why not, let's go." OMG. My mother went along with them, so I had no choice but to enter too.

It was time for the "ELABORATE SCAM." Guys, be careful of the Tianmai Jade Jewelry Center, they are serious scammers.

moondog

I disagree. If 99 is the advertised price, that's what I'm willing to pay. I'd also read the fine print about gift shop visits and plan accordingly.

BTW, that blog was very well written; the authors are not stupid.